Hello Dear Reader,

Have you been eating breakfast this week?  It is Farmhouse Breakfast Week and their theme is Shake Up Your Wake Up, to encourage you to eat this most important meal of the day.  You can read all about it in my first Shake Up recipe – my Berry Smoothie, full of anti-oxidants.

Granola was invented in America as a healthy breakfast cereal.  It is now popular all over the world but is often chock-full of sugar.  I have been trying to eliminate unnecessary sugar from my diet this year, so came up with this sugar-free granola recipe which is sweetened with honey and maple syrup instead.  It is quick to make and can be stored for months.

Yesterday I told you about my adventures in making Hazelnut Milk and today’s recipe is for sugar-free granola which uses up the leftover hazelnut meal from making the milk.

Sugar-free Granola – recipe
– 100g oats (use pinhead oats if you like it really crunchy, otherwise use rolled oats)
– 50g oatmeal
– 2 tbsp honey (swap honey for extra maple syrup for vegan-friendly granola)
– 2 tbsp maple syrup
– 20g seeds (e.g. sunflower or pumpkin seeds)
– 175g nut meal
– ½ tbsp mixed spice
– 20g unsweetened desiccated coconut
– 25g chopped dried fruit (my preference is dates)

Mix together the oats, oatmeal, honey and maple syrup.  Then stir in the seeds, nut meal, spice and coconut.  Spread out on a baking tray and bake at 180ºC for 20-25 minutes, turning once or twice during cooking, until golden in colour.  Leave to cool and then mix in the dried fruit.  Spoon into airtight jars and use within six months.

You can eat your granola as it is as a snack, or sprinkle on top of chopped fruit.  I love it on top of apples, especially slightly sour ones, as the granola adds a lovely crunch and sweetness.

Or layer it up with fat-free plain yoghurt in a pretty glass.

If you prefer it without such a crunch, then just mix it with yoghurt or milk and leave for an hour or two to soften.  Sometimes I like to mix up chopped fruit, granola and yoghurt and leave in the fridge overnight so it is nice and mushy for breakfast time.

I think it would also be lovely mixed into a crumble topping, or simply scattered over stewed fruit.

Have fun experimenting yourself!

Vohn
x

P.S.  I am entering my sugar-free granola into the BakeFest bloggers challenge run by Vardhini over at Cooks Joy, which this month is guest hosted by Divya over at Divya’s Culinary Journey.

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