Nutty Granola

Breakfast can be a difficult time. The pressure of it being the “most important meal of the day” reverberating in your mind, determining your place on the table of good food choices with everything from devil on the shoulder pastries and sausage rolls to self satisfying sanctimonious spinach and kale green juices. It can be challenging to strike a balance. Cooked breakfasts are a preferable option for me but also often fall into the category of not most practical, particularly on a busy working week and are therefore so often relegated to the lazy brunches of the weekend where you can drink in the relaxing ease of ‘time to spare’.

Midweek for me needs to be quick, eaten almost anywhere at anytime but buoyed by the satisfaction of an option that’s both delicious and, at least, pointing towards the healthy scale. Granola seems to tick those proverbial boxes, heart healthy oats alongside a plethora of protein boosting nuts bound together by the sumptuous sweetness of wholesome honey and maple syrup, and baked to a toasty goodness by coconut oil. The joy in this homemade version of granola is that you have the power to control the amount of the “naughty stuff”, with many shop-bought versions providing over indulgent amounts of sweetness and fats so that it borders on dessert material rather than energy boosting, start the day in earnest, body fuel.

On a personal point of taste I’ve omitted any trace of dried fruit in my version of granola. There is certainly a time and a place for dried fruit and I am a big fan, particularly when they’re soaked, boozy and/or drunken, or as the construct for a rich, moist tea brack or fruitcake. The stick in your teeth, mouth cloying chew of raw dried fruit is something I personally can do without in my granola but if you so desire feel free to add about 100g of chopped dates, apricots, raisins etc. to the mix either halfway through or at the end of cooking. The mix of nuts that you use is entirely up to you. Don’t have pistachios, leave them. Want more almonds, add them. It works out at 200g of nuts in the overall recipe so use what you have at hand.

Ingredients

• 350g rolled porridge oats
• 50g almonds (flaked and whole)
• 30g cashews
• 30g brazil nuts
• 30g hazelnuts
• 30g pistachios
• 30g pecans
• 75ml maple syrup
• 3 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp coconut oil/vegetable oil (or a mix of both)
• ¼ tsp sea salt flakes
• ½ tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C Fan, 170°C, 325°F, Gas Mark 5
2. In a medium sized saucepan add the oil, honey, maple syrup, salt, and vanilla extract (if using) Heat gently until all the ingredients have combined and come together.
3. Roughly chopped the nuts and add them to a large bowl along with Put the oats. When cooled slightly add the honey/maple mixture and mix thoroughly.
4. Divide the mix between two baking parchment or silicon baking sheet lined trays. Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Gently mix and return to the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool before storing in an airtight container.
5. Serve with some yoghurt and/or milk or milk alternative like oat milk for a hearty breakfast.