Mary’s Granola

There was a frisson of interest in my granola after a recent Instagram post, which led to some requests for my recipe.

 

I was making a big batch and thinking about my family as I made it. I was going to box up some for my gorgeous girl at university. My other gorgeous girls are not here (one in London and one in Vancouver) but I thought about them in the making of this too. My gorgeous boy is around but doesn’t even like granola … weird huh? #notmygenes

 

Such as it is, my granola is more often a product of how I feel at the time and what’s in the store cupboard. I always use the big rough oats, orange zest and juice and a good honey. No refined sugar or oil necessary.

 

 

The whole process of making granola is so therapeutic:

 

 

Preparing the ingredients, deciding what to put in it.  Knowing I’m creating something nourishing and pouring love into it. Once all the ingredients are gathered together (no need to weigh, just bung in what you like), I usually fill a large baking tray with the oats and a second tray with the nuts and seeds and other dry ingredients. Lately I’ve toasted all they dry ingredients first. Then I mix a tablespoon or so of honey with the juice from whatever citrus fruit I’m using. Warm it and then mix it with the dry toasted ingredients, then toast for another 30 mins on  low heat. Delish!

 

To Serve

 

Serve with a dollop of natural yogurt and top with berries (warm berries are especially nice).

 

I picked blackberries recently and they’re so much nicer than the evenly-shaped bought ones. Of course I had to wash them, and remove the centipede and other mini beasties. But the taste was an explosion on my wee taste buds.

 

 

 

 

Here is the recipe:

GRANOLA

 

200g/7oz rolled oats (jumbo oats best) or buckwheat for gluten free

Zest and juice from an orange/lemon/lime or all depending on how much dry stuff you have

2 – 4 tablespoons of good honey or maple syrup (I use less than this and mix the honey with fruit juice)

1-2 tsp cinnamon

Dried fruit to add after baking: get unsweetened dry fruit eg berries,raisins etc (or leave it out and use fresh fruit for serving)

 

Some or all of the following:

 

200g whole almonds (or flaked)

100g/ (31/2 oz)pumpkin seeds

Pecan nuts (gorgeous lightly toasted in this granola)

Sunflower seeds

Walnuts (whole of halved)

A few brazil nuts (whole then when roasted you can chop them easier – fab source of selenium)

Handful of hazelnuts (can be chopped after roasting)

Dessicated coconut

Any other nuts or seeds you fancy

METHOD

Heat oven to 120 degrees – low temp

MIX dry ingredients and orange zest and cinnamon

WARM the juice from citrus fruits then mix in the honey so it melts

MIX the juice and honey with the dry ingredients until it coats all the oats, nuts seeds etc**

SPREAD the mixture thinly on a large baking sheet (I use 2 baking sheets) – you can line the tray with baking parchment if you can be bothered. Make sure it’s in one layer and not heaped up as it won’t toast properly.

TOAST the muesli/granola for an hour – check in 30 mins and shoogle about if necessary. Toast until the grains and nuts are a lovely golden colour but don’t burn

COOL on the trays until nice and crunchy then add the dried fruits if you’re using

STORE in an air tight container and enjoy with gusto.

NB you can make a savoury version for nibbles – omit sweet stuff obvz and add black pepper and sea salt and other herbs and spices. Use tamari instead of honey.