Oats are nearly synonymous with traditional Bluenose cuisine, they are hearty and robust which served early settlers well. Even today my usual breakfast is oatmeal, and my favorite breads are oat based. They are a brilliant grain.
During my masters I consumed an unhealthy amount of yogurt. Luckily the Sainsburys opposite my college had many options to keep the variety going, especially ones that came with some oaty granola to mix in. Once my thesis was passed in I no longer had the excuse to buy little tubs of yogurt, instead we purchase larger ‘family’ tubs. While this is great, more yogurt for a cheaper price, there was one limitation. Granola doesn’t come in the bigger tubs.
Lets be honest, granola is the adult version of a overly sugary breakfast cereal. It seems much healthier than it is in reality. But, in is a natural complement to good yogurt.
So, with that in mind I went searching for granola recipes. Many times the ones I came across just didn’t seem to work. Maybe my oven was too cool, but they didn’t come out crunch and they didn’t taste good.
Then, by chance, I came across Justin Gellatly’s (@justin_gellatly) book ‘Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding’. I am a big fan of his former employer, St. John’s Bread, and have purchased bread from his new venture in Borough Market (BreadAhead.com). He is most famous for his doughnuts at St. John’s Bread and Wine, and I can attest to their tastiness.
Anyway, his book has a recipe for granola. My yogurts desire for its companion compelled me to try it. I did make some changes, let’s say for Canadian influence. Specifically I changed the honey for maple syrup (of course), and the hazelnuts for pecans as I like these with maple syrup better. I also added 2tsp of vanilla to help accent the maple. In any case, if you don’t like this you can switch it back. I also cooked it for nearly 50% longer than Gellatly suggests, but this might have been more about the limits to the size of my oven!
Anyway, my take on Gellatly’s granola clusters, maple pecan granola.
Maple Pecan Granola
Ingredients
- 160 g pecans
- 375 g jumbo oats
- 3 g fine sea salt
- 140 g seed mix I went for sunflower, pumpkin and pine nut
- 130 g butter
- 150 g maple syrup
- 50 g golden syrup or white corn syrup
- 75 g caster sugar granulated sugar in North America
- 125 g light brown sugar
- 40 g demerara sugar
Instructions
- Place butter, syurps and sugar into a pot on the stove. Slowly melt everything together until sugar is completely dissolved.
- Mix all ingredients together until just mixed. Place this on a parchment lined sheet, spread thin and don’t stir again.
- Bake for 1h15 at 140C, or until brown and crispy. Cool and crumble.
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