Granola Clusters

If I'm not out having brunch at one of the many awesome cafes, or too lazy to make brekky (waffles yum!), I would reach for a box of granola. They're tasty, "supposedly" healthy and fuss free but let's face it, these boxed stuffs are pretty expensive! Not the most cost effective daily brekky option else my bank account balance will dwindle pretty quickly. So I thought of making my own granola. It should be fairly simple. After all the basics are just oats, nuts and dried fruits.

I found a few recipes off internet, but they all called for half of the oats to be grinded into oat flour as a binder to bind the ingredients together. But I was feeling too lazy to hull out the food processor.

Then I remembered the healthy Banana Oatmeal cookies I tried sometime ago that used banana to bind the oats together. It's a simple recipe that requires only 2 ingredients with plenty of room for add ins and modifications. Building on that, I hastily scribbled what I want in my granola and gave it a shot. It worked like a charm!

Granola Clusters (makes about 650g)

Dry Ingredients
250g     Quick Oats
Nuts:
100g     Almonds, roughly chopped
100g     Cashews, roughly chopped
Dried fruits:
  50g     Raisins
Spices:
    3g     Ground Cinnamon
    1g     Ground Nutmeg

Wet Ingredients
  75g     Brown sugar
  50g     Butter, unsalted
  50g     Water
    5g     Vanilla extract
    2g     Salt
    1       Large banana, about 140g, mashed

Preheat oven to 150°C

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together.

2. In a small sauce pot, cook all of the wet ingredients over low heat till sugar and butter has dissolved. Let cool slightly if too hot.

3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly, making sure to moisten all of the dry ingredients. If the mixture seems a little dry, add in 1-2 tbsp of water.

4. Spread the mixture evenly onto a lined baking tray, and bake for approximately 1 hour. Stir and "break up" the granola with a fork every 15 minutes till the mixture has dried completely.

5. Let cool completely on a wired rack before storing in a airtight container. 

If you like this recipe and would like to share it, please link to this blog post with its original contents. All recipes are created by me (unless otherwise stated) and require a lot of effort and time to craft. Crediting back is the biggest form of encouragement for me! Thank you! =)

Thoughts: Not only did the banana do a great job replacing the grounded oats as a binder, it also imparts a mild banana fragrance to the granola and makes it really addictive. In fact, if a sweeter variety of banana is used, it can also replace/reduce the brown sugar as the natural sweetener! Using banana to make the granola is a pretty ingenious idea, if I may say so myself.

Since everyone has different preferences, I want to keep this recipe versatile, so some of the ingredients (those highlighted in red) can be swapped out for your favourite add in or omitted altogether. This allows for the flexibility to cater to everyone's taste. And if smaller pieces are preferred, you'll just need to break them up further while baking. The recipe is so simple that even my sister, who rarely step into the kitchen, tried her hand at it. Her granola has got figs and apricots added, making hers taste different from mine but equally yummy, if not better!

We absolutely love having these granola clusters with plain yoghurt and some in-season, fresh fruits for brekky. It's wholesome, not too sweet unlike some sugar-laden commercial granola, and filling enough to keep me satiated till the next meal.

We love it so much that at times, I'll dress it up to look like parfait and have it for after-dinner "dessert" as well! They also make a healthy snack for those in-between meal times when you're feeling a little peckish. My biggest issue is that they are so munchable, so irresistible, I find it challenging not to finish all of it in one seating!

All blog posts and photos are properties of WhatToBakeToday (unless otherwise stated). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of these contents, whole or part thereof, without express or written permission from this blog's author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to WhatToBakeToday with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.