Make your own granola with or without a recipe.
6 parts dry ingredients, (oats, nuts, seeds, spices and sugar) to 1 part wet (oil and liquid syrups).
NOTE: This ratio specifically excludes the fruit.
Ingredients:
4 cups of rough oats
2 cups of nuts and seeds – i like walnuts and hazelnuts, sunflower seeds and cashews in more or less equal parts, but feel free to customise according to your preference.
2 table spoons of brown sugar
1 table spoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of fresh shelled cardamom seeds, (removed from their pods but not ground).
1/2 – 3/4 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of maple syrup
1/4 cup of agave syrup
1 cup of sunflower seed oil
1/2 cup of cranberries
1/2 cup of raisins
1/2 cup of cubbed candied ginger
Steps:
Preheat oven to 160C
Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl – EXCEPT THE FRUIT. (leave the fruit until the end)
Once combined fully, spread the mixture evenly across the bottom of a baking sheet or large flat roasting pan.
Place in the middle of the oven for 5 minutes
Remove and mix, so that the uncooked laker is combined with the cooked layer on top. Spread it out evening again before returning it to the oven.
Bake for another 5 minutes, (watching carefully in the last minute or so, to make sure that the sugars do not start to burn.
Remove and mix again.
Return to the oven and bake for 3 – 4 minutes.
Remove, add the fruit and mix again.
Return to the oven and bake for 3 minutes.
Remove and mix to see if it is consistently golden throughout.
NOTE: It wont be crunchy yet.. that will only happen once cooled.
If you decide that it is not consistently golden, you can put it back in the oven for another 3 minutes at this stage, but watch it very carefully, because it burns very easily now.
If it is consistently golden throughout, leave it out to cool for half an hour to an hour, before transferring into a storage jar or zip lock bag(s).
