This granola is everything I love about granola: big chunks of nuts and gooey, chewy dried fruit, alongside smaller, easy-to-chew oats and seeds all bound up in a deep, rich honey coating and toasted to a dark, cinnamon-y perfection.
I don’t know about you but granola is one of my very favourite things to eat for breakfast. I love having a bowl of it with milk and it’s also amazing with yoghurt. Either way I almost always chop a banana on top of it. It provides that sweet kick I often crave first thing in the morning and yet it’s refreshing with milk or yoghurt and eating all those oats and nuts is wonderful. Texturally it’s spot on.
I adore whole almonds in cereal – I often add them to oatmeal or warm spiced breakfast quinoa – I just love the texture and crunch of them whole with their skins. I can’t be messing around with the slivered variety – I just don’t see the point of them. Cranberries are a great flavour to combine with almonds and I also added dried cherries here which work marvelously.
Here’s the very best thing about making granola if you never have – it’s all about delving into the depths of your kitchen cupboards and using up bits and bobs of what you have. What I happened to have surplus of on hand, you see here. So long as you have rolled oats for a base and some kind of nut and dried fruit you’re good to go! Just get inventive.
In terms of texture, you can also play around. I happen to love big chunks of things in my granola – like the whole almonds – but if you don’t then chop everything. Just pick flavours and textures you love and do your thing. Enjoy!
Almond and Cranberry Granola
adapted from Alice Currah
Notes: if you prefer a less chunky granola then be sure to chop the nuts up well. If you’re using those big, juicy organic dried cherries/cranberries then you might want to hold them back and only add them to the mix about half way through baking – otherwise they will be pretty dang crunchy.
Ingredients
- 3 cups/ 255 grams rolled oats (not the instant kind)
- 1/2 cup/ 43 grams wheat flakes
- 1/2 cup/ 72 grams sunflower seeds
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 cup/ 94 grams almonds (I like to leave half of them whole and roughly chop the rest)
- 1/4 cup/ 30 grams mix of chopped pecans and whole hazelnuts
- 3/4 cup/ 113 grams dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup/ 38 grams dried cherries
- 1/4 cup/ 56 grams vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup/ 7.3 grams brown sugar
- 1/4 cup/ 85 grams honey
- 2 tablespoons water
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300F/ 150C.
- Combine rolled oats, wheat flakes, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, cranberries, and cherries in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl combine vegetable oil, brown sugar, honey, and water and whisk gently to combine.
- Add the honey mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with your hands until all the oats are evenly coated. Transfer wet granola evenly on to two large cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Cook for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow granola to completely cool before serving. Don’t worry if the granola doesn’t seem super crunchy after coming out of the oven. It will crisp up once completely cooled. Keeps in a tightly fastened container in a cool, dry place for a few weeks.
There’s a story behind that photograph. It was taken by my friend Tiffany who was filming me for a class project she had. So that person there sifting in the stripes? That’s me. We spent an entire afternoon in my little kitchen as she made a film, interviewing me and taking some gorgeous, gorgeous shots of my food. Never have any of my creations looked so pretty. She’s one talented lady. She also geeked out with me about shallow depth of field and a plate of asparagus which I think pretty much makes us (nerdy) friends for life.
This cake got to be a bit of a star for the day, since I’d made it that morning. It’s a beauty of a cake – chocolatey with a lovely touch of Earl Grey and that oh-so necessary hint of salt to bring out the flavours.
It’s light and perfect any time of day but the most important thing for you to know is that it gets better after a couple of days. I always freak out a little that my baked goods are going to go stale overnight but this is not so! This cake, stored properly, becomes a little more dense – creamy even – after a day or too, and so chocolatey and wonderful. I ate half of the thing myself. And that is no exaggeration.
Earl Grey Chocolate Cake
from Real Simple via Shutterbean
Ingredients
- 6 Earl Grey tea bags or 2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea
- 1 cup water
- 113g/ 4oz/ 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 113g/ 4oz bittersweet chocolate, melted in a double-broiler and cooled
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher/coarse salt
- 1/4 cup plain yoghurt
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- powdered/ confectioners’ sugar, to dust
Directions
- Heat oven to 350F. Grease an 8-cup bundt tube pan with neutral oil.
- Brew the tea in hot water 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags or strain the leaves and set the brewed tea aside.
- Beat the butter, eggs, and granulated sugar until fluffy. Stir in the melted chocolate. Beat in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, yoghurt, sour cream, and brewed tea. Pour into bundt pan.
- Bake 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes.
- Turn out of pan and cool on a wire rack. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve. Keeps, stored in an airtight container at room temperature, for several days.
Crispy, salted chocolate cookies with a thick smear of Nutella sandwiched between them. I don’t mind if I do.
Do you bake? Some of you must as I’m sure you come here to look at recipes but others of you might just like pretty pictures of food (one of the biggest reasons I enjoy looking at food blogs). If you like to bake then maybe you understand me when I say that baking soothes my soul. If I have something on my mind or feel stressed out, then baking some simple cookies or quick bread lets me breathe.
Something about the familiar motions of creaming butter and sugar with a wooden spoon and sieving flour comforts me. The predictability of combining certain ingredients in a particular way and knowing what the outcome will be helps my mind wander through whatever is bothering it. It’s really a wonderful thing.
These got the thumbs up from my co-workers who got treated to them though I will say that you shouldn’t be shy with the Nutella. I was fairly conservative and but you really want a good, thick smear.
Salted Chocolate Nutella Cookies
adapted from The Faux Martha and my post on Homemade Oreo Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 tbsp Nutella
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter at room-temperature
- 1 large egg
- Coarse salt
For the filling
- Up to one 13oz jar of Nutella
Directions
- Set rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375°F.
- In a bowl sieve and whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream together butter, Nutella, and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg.
- Slowly add in the flour mixture until evenly incorporated; the dough should come together in a mass.
- Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Sprinkle a little sea salt on top of each one. Bake for 9-11 minutes; the cookies will spread significantly while baking. Set baking sheet on a rack to cool.
- Spread Nutella onto cooled cookies with a butter knife. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top, sandwiching the Nutella in the middle. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Sprinkle with more sea salt, if desired. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with Nutella. Chomp. Makes about 15 sandwich cookies (or about 30 plain cookies).
