maple granola

I’m still not sure that we deserve this recipe. Serve with plain Greek yoghurt and perhaps the fruit compote.

Ingredients

Wet-

50g maple syrup

30g vegetable oil, most types (olive oil has too strong a flavour)

20g warm water

Dry-

pinch of salt

200g oats

60g crushed hazelnuts or brazils or almonds or pecans or mixture of these - there's no need to roast these

50g light muscovado

Other-

20g honey eg. everyday, lavender, chestnut

60g sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds mixture

100g dried apricots or dried strawberries

60g flaked coconut

60g dried blueberries or dried cranberries

Peel of two oranges, peeled from a fresh orange with a standard peeler - not intended to be eaten, more to flavour the granola while it's stored.

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 170C.

Whisk the wet ingredients (water, maple syrup and vegetable oil) in a bowl until liquid. Don't add the honey yet.

Mix the dry oats, nuts, muscovado and salt in a bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing with hands until the mixture is 'even'

Then, evenly distribute the combined mixture on a baking tray (to a depth of approx. 2cm).

Cook for approx. 40 mins in an oven set to 160-170C (or, for a good oven, 140C), redistributing the mixture every 10 or so minutes to 'control' the mixture. If you are using dried apricots/blueberries/coconut/cranberries, then start soaking these in water (just enough to cover them) approx. 20 mins before the end of the oven mixture's cooking. The dried strawberries don't need to be soaked.

When the first stage of cooking is done, hand-squeeze dry-ish the soaked fruits, add these and the honey to the cooked mixture, and redistribute all mixture on the tray.

Cook for a final 10 or so minutes in an oven set to approx. 160-170C.

When evenly cooked and largely dry, remove from oven, set aside to cool, redistributing mixture to cool it evenly. Add the orange peel before storage.

Storage

Can be stored in an air-tight container in a room-temperature cupboard for, ideally, 4 days at most; unless you have incredibly low standards, implies Khalid, disdainfully. It's also best to make small batches of the granola to ensure it's fresh.