Healthy Breakfasts

 

Recipe of the week-Granola

As the saying goes ...   Breakfast like a king/queen

My granola has evolved from my reading of three books over the decades. Rose Elliot's Beanfeast, The Cranks Recipe Book and Peter Deadman and Karen Betteridge's  1973 Nature's Foods.

In a baking tray I put oatflakes, preferably organic, with sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds and chopped nuts. 

I use a tray big enough to allow me to fill my old coffee tin and a bit of surplus mix for a gift jar. Follain's lovely colourful capped jam jars make great containers for gifts.

Meanwhile melt some coconut oil and pour over the mix. If you like your granola sweet add maple syrup or honey, the syrup blends in better. (You can use sunflower,walnut/groundnut oil but sesame is best left to stir fry and olive oil is a bit strong I think) You can of course dry roast instead.

Roast on the tray in the oven 180C for about 25 minutes.

When brown but not burnt! add coconut flakes, milled seeds, dried fruits, raisins,sultanas, cranberries...

Keep in an airtight tin. 

Serve with fresh fruit/yogurt

I don't measure quantities for this recipe. More oat flakes than seeds clearly.

Rose Elliot suggests wheatgerm and bran as additives at the end

She also suggests trying a variety of grains like bulgarwheat, couscous or millet flakes.

Another simple variant is to soak a bowl of oatflakes with sunflower seeds overnight in apple/orange juice.Soaking the seeds activates valuable enzymes.

Then add fresh fruit/yoghurt or whatever you fancy the next morning.

The difference between Granola and Muesli is that granola is roasted. Dr Bircher-Bennet at around the turn of the twentieth century invented his muesli for patients in a Swiss clinic. He suggested soaking rolled oats overnight and next day adding grated apple, nuts and some honey, topping the lot with condensed milk. Ordinary milk was not safe at the time. But you can now use it or any of the nutmilk alternatives.

Plenty to chew over here.....