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How to make your own granola

When it comes to breakfast, it’s hard to go wrong with a good bowl of granola. Sweet, crunchy, and fulling, a good bowl of granola can keep you going until lunch time on even the busiest of days. In case it wasn’t already obvious, I’m a big fan of granola!

However, my love for granola does not extend to the overly sweet, overpriced offerings found on grocery store shelves. The simple fact of the matter is that homemade granola is always more affordable, tastier, and better for you than the store-bought kind. If all that wasn’t enough reason to ditch the pre-packed poor excuse for a breakfast, it’s actually remarkably simple to make your own granola.

Although they are occasionally incorrectly categorised as the same thing granola and muesli are quite different. Muesli is comprised of a combination of raw and dry ingredients, while granola is baked and often includes a wet ingredient.

The Ratios

Just like muesli, the secret to making tasty granola is all down to a firm understanding of ingredient ratios. When whipping up a batch of granola just keep in mind the following ratio: six parts dry, one part wet.

Granola-Rolled oats.jpg

What should those dry and wet ingredients be? Well, there are no hard and fast rules but at the very least one part of the ratio should be comprised of rolled oats. Rolled oats are pretty much the only crucial ingredient in a bowl of granola and I’d recommend putting in about three parts rolled oats to start with. The remaining three ratios can be taken up with a combination of grains, nuts, and seeds. For grains try rolled barley, flaxseed, and millet. For nuts and seeds try walnuts, almonds, pecans, pumpkins seeds, coconut flakes, and sesame seeds.

Granola-honey.jpg

Finally, you’ll need a wet ingredient for your granola. This should be a combination of oil such as butter or olive oil and something to provide sweetness like syrup or honey. The ratio of oil and sugar is really dependant on how sweet you like your granola.

The Method

We’ve got all our ratios sorted, now it’s time to put it all together.

1) Preheat your oven to 300°F.

2) Next, combine all your dry ingredients into a large bowl.

3) Add your oil/sugar combination to the dry ingredients and using your hands work them together.

Granola-tray.jpg

4) Lay your granola mixture flat on a baking sheet and put it in an oven for 30-40 minutes.

5) Turn the granola every 10 minutes or so. Remove from the oven when golden brown.

6) Once it has been removed from the oven leave the granola to cool.

7) Once the granola has cooled, add some dried fruit to the mix.

8) Finally, store your granola in an airtight container.

Granola-cooked.jpg

And that’s all there is too it! Be sure to experiment with various combinations and flavors to find a recipe that suites your palate.

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Stephanie
Stephanie
2 years ago

Thanks, I can’t wait to try this with the Poached Pear recipe I found here. BTW, did you know you have ‘wine’ as a tag for this recipe? Maybe breakfast would be better LOL. 😉