There is no wrong way to make granola. As long as you have a few key ingredients and know four basic steps, all you need is a spare half hour.
Recently I’ve been trying to make more things from scratch rather than buying them, such as sourdough bread, dumplings and pickled ginger. When I’m eating something regularly, I like to investigate how easy it would be to make it myself and try my hand at it. Invariably I learn something through the experience (even if it’s just “this is much harder to make than I would have expected”) and it also means I can make things that better suit my taste by adjusting the ingredients.
Granola is a perfect example. It’s a great and healthy(ish) way to start the day, and it’s really easy: in under an hour you can make a batch that will last for weeks. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, and so it’s great to be able to make granola that is a little less sweet than what is usually available on the supermarket shelf.
I don’t want to provide a prescriptive granola recipe here, because I don’t believe there is one. Rather than worrying about precise measurements, what you really need to know to make great granola is the five key ingredients to use (and why each is important) and the four simple steps you need to follow. So, what are these five ingredients?
What you need (and why you need it)
Ingredients
- Rolled oats
- A sugar syrup
- Olive/vegetable oil
- Dried berries, seeds, nuts and fruits
- Spices and salt
Rolled oats
Oats are the central ingredient when making granola. Without the oats providing the carbohydrates as a base, you’d just be eating sugar (delicious, yes, but less nutritious or substantial).
Rolled oats are the best type of oats to use in granola because they cook the most evenly in a short period of time (you don’t want to cook granola for too long as it risks burning the sugar). The reason for this is because rolled oats are oats that have been steamed and then rolled flat, giving them a large surface area that’s perfect for baking with the other ingredients of granola.
A sugar syrup
To sweeten the oats and provide some of the crunchy stickiness that characterises granola, you need some form of sugar syrup. This can be almost anything – for example maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, golden syrup, or mixture of any of these. In terms of amount, you ideally want to have around 50ml of sugar syrup per 100g of oats.
The only thing to watch out for is that you don’t want it to be too thick, or the oats will clump together too much and won’t roast evenly. So if you’re using golden syrup, for instance, you’ll want to mix it with something runny like thin honey or add more oil.
Olive/vegetable oil
To help the oats roast properly in the oven and give the grains a nice golden colour – rather than being covered in burnt sugar – you’ll need a bit of oil to mix in with your chosen sugar syrup(s). I find that olive oil tastes best, but any oil will do. Aim for around a tablespoon per 150g of oats.
Dried berries, seeds, nuts and fruits
To give more flavour, texture and nutritional value to your granola, you can add any dried berries or seeds you like. I usually use dates, chopped apricots, almonds and a supermarket seed mix, but you can use any combination you like. You can also add other ingredients such as desiccated coconut, but make sure everything is dried – fresh ingredients wouldn’t roast as well and your granola wouldn’t keep as long.
Again the amount you add is entirely up to your personal taste, but a good ratio to aim for is an equal weight of dried ingredients and oats (e.g. if using 200g of oats, you might add 50g each of dates, chopped apricots and almonds, and 25g each of seeds and desiccated coconut).
A quick note: keep the dried berries and fruits to one side when baking, as these go in later than the seeds and nuts (see the step-by-step guide below).
Spices and salt
Depending on how you want your granola to taste, you can flavour it with a variety of spices. I always add a little salt and a good shake of cinnamon and nutmeg – but again this isn’t prescriptive. Many recipes call for vanilla or ground ginger; you can use whatever you want, and it’s a great way to use up things you have lying around.
A step-by-step guide to making granola
Equipment
- Large baking tray
- Mixing bowl
- Wooden spoon
- Tin foil (optional)
1. Mix everything except dried berries and fruits together
Put your oats, sugar syrup, oil, nuts, seeds, spices and salt into a mixing bowl, and stir them together with a wooden spoon until they are all combined. The reason for leaving out the dried berries and fruits here is that you don’t want to roast these as long as the other ingredients – if they went into the oven too early they could burn.
If you’re using desiccated coconut in your granola, keep this aside with the dried berries and fruits. Basically you just want to keep aside anything that would be at risk of burning in the oven.
2. Spread out on a baking tray and roast for 10-15 minutes at 150°C
Once the ingredients have been mixed together, spread them out flat on a baking tray (you can line the tray with tin foil to make cleaning up easier if you like, but it’s not essential). You want the oats to be spread as thinly as possible to get them to roast evenly.
After you have done this, put the tray in an oven pre-heated to 150°C and leave them for 10-15 minutes.
3. Add dried berries and fruits and roast for another 10 minutes
Remove the baking tray from the oven once the oats are starting to turn golden and mix in the dried berries and fruits (and coconut if using). Once these have been combined with the oats and other ingredients, spread the mixture flat on the baking tray and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
4. Leave to cool
Remove the tray from the oven, give the oats a quick mix using a wooden spoon to ensure none are stuck to the baking tray/tin foil, and then leave to cool.
After about half an hour your granola should be cool enough to put into an airtight container and stored in a cupboard. If properly stored it should last up to one month.
