Homemade Granola with Fruits and Nuts

Granola is a popular breakfast food made of oats. It usually has some oil/butter in it and is sweetened with some honey, maple syrup or golden syrup. You can add a choice of spices to it. And of course some nuts, seeds and dry fruits. The combination of all these is a super healthy breakfast that no one can resist.



Eating cereal as part of breakfast became a habit when I moved to US, though I have eaten it a few times in India as well. Then along the line came Oats. I would be lying if I told you that I fell in love with it instantly. Over the years I have learned to love it. Oats, some Soy Milk and Raisins is how I like my oats.



Then came the era of Muesli and Granola. My first experience was with a Muesli. Well, you might at this point ask what is the difference. If you do not know, Muesli is basically uncooked oats mixed with fruit and nut. So it is more like toss everything and it is ready to go! But there comes the problem. I am not a uncooked oats kind of person. Plus did I tell you Muesli usually does not have much added sweeteners to it. Well, that is not good either for my taste buds, is it? I tried it a few times and quit. I was told last weekend by someone how she likes to eat her muesli which has been soaked overnight in milk. That kind of sounds interesting. I have to say I am tempted to try.



Well, anyways during those days of not liking Muesli and looking for something different we found Granola. As with a lot of things those days, we did find him in the isles of Costco. We loved it instantly. And we did eat it for a long time and lost him somewhere during our move to UK. I again stumbled upon him (you know Mr.Granola) recently. This time, I am a home cook and a baker. So I knew I had to try it at home.



We do not get the nice thick oats here. All we get is the Scottish Porridge Oats. Its not as thin as the instant ones, but not quite thick as well. Looking for thicker oats ended in a failure. I was almost about to give up when someone told me that they make Granola with Scottish Porridge Oats. And when Avant Garde Cookies decided to make something with the letter G - I knew G is for Granola!!!



Ingredients

Oats 3 cups

Nuts, Seeds and Fruits
Almond 1/2 cup
Sunflower seeds 1/2 cup
Pumpkin seeds 1/2 cup
Dry Fruits (Raisins, Cherries, Orange peel, pineapple etc) 2 cups

Spices
Ginger Powder 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon Powder 1/2 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp

Wet Ingredients
Golden Syrup 1/2 cup
Oil 2 tbsp
Vanilla Extract 1 tsp

Method of Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 165 C. Brush a baking pan with some oil (use a little of the oil used in the recipe).

2. In a bowl add Oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, salt, ginger powder and cinnamon powder. Give it a nice toss.

3. Mix the golden syrup, oil and vanilla extract in a small bowl.

4. Add this to the oats mix. Mix everything together till the oats are coated with the syrup mix.

5. Transfer to the baking tray.

6. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Bake till the oats are nicely browned, without burning it.

7. It will not be too crunchy when it comes out of the oven. Let it cool and then it will get crunchier.

8.Mix the dried fruits. I felt that the granola had a little too much fruits. Next time I will add only 1 cup of dried fruits.

Check out the other AGC thoughout this week 
Anusha, Jayanthi, Kavitha, Priya M, Radhika, Priya S