One of the things that I did at the weekend was to make home made Granola.
Dave loves a good granola after buying some from a farmers market which I have to agree was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately at £4.99 for a 475g bag, buying this just doesn't fit into a frugal lifestyle.
Making granola... ahhh now that's a different matter. It's easy and compared to buying ready made it is cheap.
I used quite a high proportion of seeds and nuts, but that's because Dave likes his granola nutty a bit like himself, But you could make it cheaper by adding less and increasing the quantity of oats. Some recipes I've seen don't add any seeds or nuts and just use oats, which would take the cost right down. You can also add dried fruit once the granola is cooled and ready for storage, though we prefer it without dried fruit.
Recipe
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| All the dry ingredients measured and ready. |
Ingredients
5 cups rolled oats
1 cup seeds - any you like I used sunflower because that's what I had in.
1 cup chopped nuts - again any you like, but I had brazil nuts and almonds in stock.
1/2 cup of oil - I used an organic cold pressed rapeseed oil, but it doesn't really matter unless it's a strongly flavoured oil that you don't like - I've even seen some recipes that use melted butter.
1/2 cup of honey or soft brown sugar - used honey this time, but have used the sugar before.
1/2 tsp cinnamon - add more or less, substitute for another spice or even leave it spice free.
1/2 teaspoon os sea salt - don't be tempted to leave this out, in the grand scheme of things it's not a lot of salt per serving and it does make a difference to the flavour.
Mix all the ingredients together - I just do it in a large roasting tin, but if you do it in a bowl, spread it out onto baking tray/s.
Bake at 150C/130-140C fan oven/ Gas 2 for about 1 hour. Stir every 20 minutes and when it has all turned a golden brown remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray. Break up any large lumps as it cools. If you want to add any dried fruit do so now. Store in an airtight container.
Enjoy!
That sounds really delicious AND it's far more cost-effective than anything of the same quality in the shops!!! Jx
ReplyDeleteNow that does sound yummy. Shall have to give this a go.
ReplyDeleteKaren x
So I read your post and it looked great so I decided to make some right away. Then it all went wrong (MY fault, not yours!!!) My honey was hard, so I took the metal lid off and put the glass jar of honey in the microwave for 30 secs... liquid honey....1/4 cup....use treacle to make up shortfall...treacle in tin so can't microwave...boil kettle and stand jar in bowl of hot water...treacle melts a bit so measure 1/4 cup and add to granola...treacle too thick so try to mix with spoon...bowl too small so transfer to biggest bowl, scrape up spilt bits and add to rest....won't mix...use hands....oh dear, sticky hands so have to eat sticky mix off fingers, yum yum....wash hands....spoon granola onto baking trays and put in oven....set timer to 20 mins....sit down with tea and report back... :-)
ReplyDeleteOh thank you Attila, your post has made me laugh (with you - not at you I hasten to add). Glad that it all turned out OK - it is very hard not to eat it all straight away isn't it? Even once cold I do tend to find myself dipping into the jar each time I pass!
Delete1 hour later....trying not to eat hot granola.... YUM!!!!
ReplyDeleteYummy, thanks for the recipe! I should really make this rather than buying cereal all the time. :) x
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recipe. I'll have a go at that.
ReplyDeleteLove from Mum
xx