After Sunrise II (Granola)

I much prefer my oats toasted but the amount of sugar and fat used to make store bought granola is astounding. Even homemade varieties often have a lot of sugar and fat and often contain rock hard sultanas and other slightly squishy things which claim to have been fruit in a previous life. 

David Lebowitz's recipe is very tasty but still uses quite a bit of sugar  and apple puree which is a little difficult to come by. I use my sister’s idea of apple juice which seems to work just as well and doesn’t leave you with a whole lot of leftover apple puree.

As the photographer now makes me a pre-breakfast smoothie in the hours before sunrise (recipe coming soon), I keep a stash of this at work now so I can breakfast at a reasonable hour. It’s great with apples and plain yoghurt.  If you want to add dried fruit, it’s best to do it just before eating otherwise the granola sucks out the little bit of moisture left in the fruit.

(Serves many).

Ingredients 

2 cups large flake rolled oats

½ cup oat bran

½ cup sesame seeds

½ cup flaxseeds

½ cup pumpkin seeds

½ cup sunflower seeds

½ cup desiccated coconut

250g mixed roasted unsalted  or raw nuts (optional)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 tablespoons honey

175mL apple juice

Preheat the oven to 160⁰C.

In a large ovenproof dish place the oats,

  

oat bran,

cocount,

pepitas,

sunflower seeds, 

 sesame seeds,

flaxseeds,

cinnamon,

In a heatproof jug microwave the honey on high for 20 seconds (to make it runny). Add the apple juice and microwave another 20 seconds.

Add to the dry mixture until evenly coated. It should be moist but not too wet.

 

Divide amongst oven trays (I used 2 large casserole dishes and my oven tray). Bake in the oven until golden and almost dry (around 35-45 min depending on how thick the layer of granola is on the tray). Stir every 15-20min with a spatula. If you're using unroasted nuts, add them to the baking trays about 20min into baking. Allow to cool. 

Store in an airtight container. Other granola recipes say you can store for a month but there's never any left after a few weeks.