Classic Granoloa

For those who have known me for long enough, I can eat the same thing for a long time without changing the habit. There was once when I was 10 and every dinner I insisted on having stir fried sweet potato leaves with sambal (Indonesian hot sauce made from various spicy condiments which include chilli peppers and shrimp paste) every day for dinner and that phase lasted me for 6 months. My mom was, of course, half exasperated and half happy that I was a pretty low maintenance kid.

Granola is my staple breakfast food. I will always need a basic Greek yoghurt, granola and honey every morning. Whether I’m in London visiting friends, or at home prepping for work early in the morning, or on a road trip, it is the one thing I need to have. I used to crave bread in the mornings (don’t get me wrong, I am still a bread girl through and through), but one day I just bought a carton of granola and never looked back.

I’ve been searching for the perfect store-bought granola, after having proudly and gladly taste testing all of the brands possible. There still hasn’t been one with the perfect muesli/oat - nuts - seed ratio for some reason. Moreover, it was only up to a year ago I’ve learnt how much sugar and syrup actually goes into the store bought granola.

Store bought granola is good. But home made granola is great. Like a “touch-down world rugby champions” GREAT kind of way. There was only 1 way left for me and that was to make my own granola. I’ve come a long way since then and this is something that I quickly make every other weekend to last me through the hectic weekdays. The good part about this is that there is NO added sugar or syrup - I only use natural pure honey for sweetness. And the best part about this is that you can make your own perfect granola ratio (I like mine with more nuts and seeds). Sometimes I get fickle as well - on some days i throw in coconut flakes. On other days, I’m choosing honey roasted cashews and pumpkin seeds. And on days where life really gets me down, I’m spamming the chocolate chunks.

There is so much joy in getting to be the master of my granola. Does anyone actually feel me??

(you can brown it however much you want to as well!)

I mainly eat them for breakfast, but granola can be so much more than that. Think healthy snacks, topping for desserts, parfaits, sprinkled on ice cream, etc.

Now I don’t actually have a fixed recipe with measurements for each ingredients. It’s a lot about gut feel and how much you need. It’s a very asian thing to add “a little” of this and “a pinch” of that without an actual concrete metric measurement, so I’m gonna exercise my asian roots right here. The fun is that you basically get to add anything that you think would make your granola da bomb diggity. YYYAAASSS.

CLASSIC GRANOLA

(You’re the boss of how much granola you want to make, but I usually make 2 jars)

General Ingredients

Oats

Seeds - sunflower seeds / pumpkin seeds / flax seeds

Nuts - almond silvers / chopped cashews / walnuts / pistachios / pecans / chopped macadamias

Dried fruits - cranberries / dried blue berries / banana chips / dried figs / dried dates

Honey (be sure to use natural pure honey which has no additional sweeteners or sugars in them)

Vanilla extract

Olive/canola oil

When you’re feeling indulgent

Apricots

Chocolate chips

Coconut flakes

Chex Cereal

Peanut butter cups/chips

Maple syrup - an indulgent substitute for honey

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 Degrees C Toss all the general dry ingredients together in a large bowl

2. Drizzle the beautiful messy pile with honey, 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and 1-2 tablespoon of olive/canola oil (about 1 tablespoon for every cup of oats)

3. Mix everything well and make sure everything is coated

4. Spread the mixture onto a parchment paper / baking paper and bake at 170 Degrees C for about 15-20 minutes or until golden and toasty. However make sure that you open the oven and stir the granola with a spoon to make sure everything browns evenly!

5. Remove on the oven and cool on the baking paper.

6. Mix in the ingredients that are meltable (such as chocolate chips, peanut butter cups etc)

7. Store in an airtight jar/container and it’ll last for a week

XO,

Chloe