Recipe: Homemade Granola

I have granola with yoghurt for breakfast every single morning and although I think my go-to storebought version is very tasty, I also predict it’s not going to taste the same after I get used to this homemade granola! Granola is very simple to make, and the fun thing is that you can customise it entirely to your own wishes. The base is always rolled oats (as far as I can tell), to which you add unburned nuts and other things that strike your fancy. You can sweeten it with honey or, for example, maple syrup, which also makes the oats stick together a bit more.

For my recipe, I decided to got for hazelnuts and pecan nuts, because those are my favourite types of nuts. I also added green pumpkin seeds, since I always enjoy those in my storebought granola. For flavour, I went for some ground cinnamon and to make it that extra bit special, I added some chopped up pieces of dark chocolate. You can absolutely leave those out if you want, of course, but I love a bit of chocolate in my breakfast!

You could also add raisins or dried cranberries to your granola if you’re partial to that, but do make sure to add them after baking (just like the chocolate). Whatever you decide to add, you can hardly go wrong. The possibilities with homemade granola are seemingly endless, and I’m definitely going to experiment some more in the future!

You’ll need…

• 200 g rolled oats
• 100 g unburned hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
• 80 g unburned pecan nuts, coarsely chopped
• 50 g green pumpkin seeds
• 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 5 tablespoons of honey
• 50 g dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
• parchment paper
• baking sheet
• and an oven, of course! This granola needs to be baked at 170 °C (don’t forget to preheat your oven!)

So, let’s get baking!

1. Mix together all of the ingredients apart from the chocolate This really is an incredibly easy recipe. All you have to do is put all of your ingredients, apart from the chocolate, together in a bowl and mix them together. What I did is first mix together all of the dry ingredients before adding the oil and the honey. I did this so I could be sure that the honey would be evenly distributed throughout the mixture.

2. Bake! Line your baking sheet with parchment paper and transfer the mixture onto it, making sure it’s evenly divided over the sheet. Then, bake the granola for 20 to 25 minutes at 170 °C. Make sure to stir the granola every ten minutes so that all of it bakes evenly. When it’s done baking, take the sheet out of the oven and let the granola cool down on the baking sheet. Don’t worry if it seems like the oats aren’t very crunchy yet: as the granola cools down, it will gain more of a crunch.

3. Add chocolate Once the granola has cooled down completely, you can add the chopped up chocolate and mix it through. Store the granola in an airtight container or jar.

And that’s all there is to it! You’ve got your own delicious, crunchy, yummy granola! Enjoy!