Recipe: Nutty Maple Granola

We’ve found a great brand of granola and muesli here in the UK, but I’ve been thinking for the last couple of weeks about making granola myself. I’d done it in the past but had never written the recipe down. So I browsed around the inter-webs and found this Bon Appetit recipe, which looked simple and tasty. I checked out Joy the Baker to compare recipes and was inspired by her use of maple syrup in this recipe. Thus was born the following granola recipe. I skipped coconut because it’s expensive but I added banana chips for extra crunch. The granola smelled so good when it was baking and the flavors work really well together. It has a nice crunch with a bit of chewiness from the dried fruit. Eat it alone or mixed into some plain yogurt. I had a hard time stopping myself from sneaking nibbles throughout the day…

tasty even without clusters

I’ll definitely make this granola again, though for next time I’d like to figure out how to make it stick together in larger chunks — maybe more honey/sticky stuff or less stirring during cooking? I’ve also read a couple of recipes that use egg white to make chunks. If you have any tips, please let me know in the comments!

[UPDATE 4 March 2013: I was browsing through the excellent smitten kitchen cookbook and saw that she has a recipe for granola clusters. Her secret? An egg white! Lo and behold, I followed her instructions (and recipe; similar to my own except she uses olive oil) and came out with gorgeous granola in beautiful, ragged clusters.]

take 2: beautiful, crunchy clusters!

Nutty Maple Granola (inspired by these two recipes)

Ingredients

• 4 cups oats
• 1.5 cups mixed nuts, roughly chopped/crushed (or your nut(s) of choice)
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup banana chips, crushed
• 4 tbsp brown sugar
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1/3 honey
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup dried fruit of choice (I used mixed dried fruit but about half were raisins)

the makings of great granola

Procedure

• Preheat the oven to 300F (150C). Spread parchment paper on a baking sheet.
• Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
• Heat the oil, honey, and maple syrup in a saucepan until smooth.
• Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Spread onto the baking sheet and bake for 40-50′, stirring every 10′, until the granola is to your preferred crispness.
• Cool and stir in the dried fruit.

Enjoy!

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