Maple Granola

Another item I decided to whip up for my Foodie Penpals match for April was a nice bit of home made granola.

She had mentioned that she quite fancied some quick snacky foods and I thought this could be a good breakfast solution. I also knew that she is an avid baker and I thought she could perhaps use the granola in some cookies or something.

I used the basic recipe from my Primrose Bakery Book for their delicious sounding home made Granola but adapted it a little to the ingredients I'd bought (turns out not enough dried fruit) and the fact that I fancied trying out what it would be like with a nice bit of maple syrup swapped out for some of the honey. I guess as long as you stick to the basic quantities of butter, syrups / honey and oats in this recipe though, you could put anything in. I would love to try some different combinations such as white chocolate and cranberry or blueberry.

Recipe
500g oats
100g almonds
A 75g bag mixed seeds
400g sultanas
170g unsalted butter
150ml clear honey
100ml maple syrup
2 tbsp golden syrup

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Start by mixing together the oats, seeds, almonds and dried fruit.

Transfer to a baking tray. I used greaseproof paper but wouldn't recommend doing that again - just the tray is fine.

Measure out the butter, maple syrup, honey and golden syrup into a saucepan.

Melt the contents of the saucepan together over a low heat until all the butter has melted and the ingredients are combined.

Pour the contents of the saucepan over the dry granola ingredients in the oven tray and mix well until all the oats are covered in a nice bit of the liquid. Place the tray in the oven.

Set your timer to go off every five minutes. Every five minutes, take the granola out of the oven and use a spoon to separate the granola and to ensure it's all getting an even baking.

Once the granola has an even colour, after about half an hour, take the granola out of the oven and leave to cool. It will go firm and lovely and crunchy.

Transfer the granola to an airtight container and you're done!