Granola

Many healthy food supporters eat muesli for breakfast, rightly regarding them as a useful product that can be energized for a long time. No less useful and even more tasty is granola, which many Americans eat and snack on. It is a mixture of cereal flakes (usually oatmeal), nuts and dried fruits, baked in the oven to a pleasant crunch. Caramelize them with a liquid mixture based on butter and honey, which is often replaced with maple or other syrup. Sometimes the products that make up the granola are pressed into sweet crunchy bars, which are convenient to take to workout, to work or to travel. Granola can be purchased in the form of bars or dry mix in many stores, but it is better to do it at home. Homemade granola will contain exactly the ingredients that you like, and it will have less low-sugar. The process of cooking this tasty and healthy American breakfast is so simple that even an aspiring cook will cope with the task.

Cooking Features

It is easy to make granola at home, but it can also not be sufficiently tasty and appetizing, if you do not know the general principles of its preparation.

Although granola contains approximately the same ingredients as muesli, their ratio is not the same. Cereals from cereals prevail in muesli, and nuts and dried fruits are only additives, usually occupying no more than 20% of the total composition of the dish. In granola flakes, nuts and dried fruits are often put in equal proportions. If even one of these ingredients turns out to be more than the other, it is usually not more than 2 times.
Traditionally, granola is made from oat flakes, but they can be replaced with buckwheat, barley or others, as well as puffed rice. Honey or maple syrup as part of a useful delicacy can also be replaced by any fruit syrup.
Granola flakes are best used not too finely ground. “Hercules” will fit more than “Extra”. If you use instant oatmeal, they are too brittle and can even be overdone during cooking in the oven.
Dry ingredients (seeds, nuts, flakes) are mixed to make traditional granola. Separately, the liquid mixture is prepared and combined with the dry. The resulting mass is spread on a baking sheet and placed in a preheated oven. The optimum temperature is 140-170 degrees. Cooking time may depend on the thickness of the granola layer and the temperature in the oven. Usually it is 30-60 minutes. So that the products are dried evenly, they are mixed several times during cooking.
Dried fruits are added to the already prepared mixture, otherwise they will become tough and tasteless. If the composition has chocolate, its pieces are mixed with the main ingredients after they have cooled.
The technology for making granola in the form of bars is slightly different. All products are mixed immediately, then laid out in suitable molds and tightly tamped. Then the mass is dried in the oven, cooled, removed from the molds and wrapped in foil or parchment.

Granola is tasty in itself, but for breakfast it is usually served with yogurt, cottage cheese, other dairy products or juice. If the food has the form of bars, they are eaten instead of sweets with tea or coffee.

Classic Granola Recipe

Composition:

oatmeal - 80 g;
wheat germination - 20 g;
walnut kernels - 20 g;
sunflower seeds - 20 g;
raisins - 20 g;
dried cherries - 20 g;
maple syrup - 30 ml;
refined vegetable oil - 30 ml;
brown sugar - 20 g;
salt - a pinch;
ground cinnamon - a pinch;
boiled water - 10 ml.

Method of preparation:

Measure out the right amount of “Hercules” oatmeal, put it in a bowl.
Finely chop the nuts with a knife. It is impossible to use a blender or a coffee grinder to grind them, as they should remain in small pieces, not turning into nut flour.
Pour chopped nuts and sunflower seeds to oatmeal.
Mix sugar with warm boiled water. Add to them the oil and syrup, mix.
Pour the liquid mixture into a bowl with dry ingredients, mix the contents of the bowl well.
Heat the oven to about 150-160 degrees.
Lay parchment on a baking sheet. Put the prepared mixture on it.
Place the baking tray in the oven for half an hour. During this time, twist the food twice so that they dry out evenly.
Add raisins and cherries, mix. Return the pan to the oven for another 10 minutes. After a specified time, the granola will be ready.

In America, the homeland of granola, maple syrup is not a deficit, but not every store sells it here. You can replace it with rosehip syrup, with granola it will be even more useful.

Nut Granola

Composition:

oatmeal - 180 g;
raisins - 30 g;
dried apricots - 30 g;
dried cranberries - 30 g;
walnuts - 30 g;
almonds - 30 g;
cashews - 30 g;
coconut chips - 30 g;
sunflower seeds - 20 g;
sesame seeds - 20 g;
ground spices - 2 g;
honey - 60 ml;
water or fruit juice - 20 ml.

Method of preparation:

Finely chop all the nuts with a knife, pour into a bowl. Add to them oatmeal, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds, mix.
Melt the honey to a liquid state, dilute it with boiled water or juice.
Pour over the dry ingredients with the honey mixture, mix. Put on a baking tray with a parchment.
Send the baking tray to the oven preheated to 160 degrees. Cook them for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Cut dried apricots into small pieces - about the size of raisin. Mix with raisins and cranberries.
Add a mixture of dried fruits to oven-baked products. Stir. Leave in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

It remains to pour the granola into a container and add it to breakfast as needed. In this embodiment, granola is a lot of nuts, so it is especially high in calories, but at the same time it is especially tasty. It can even be served as a dessert, sprinkled with sweet yogurt, cottage cheese or ice cream.

Granola in the shape of a bar

Composition:

rice cereal - 150 g;
almonds - 100 g;
cashews - 100 g;
pumpkin seeds - 50 g;
flax seeds - 20 g;
dried cherries - 100 g;
dark chocolate - 50 g;
agave syrup (can be replaced with cherry) - 60 ml;
coconut oil - 30 g;
salt - a pinch.

Method of preparation:

Break the chocolate into small pieces or divide them with a knife.
Crumble almonds, cashews and pumpkin seeds.
Fold in a bowl of rice cereal (or puffed rice), chopped pumpkin seeds and nuts, dried cherries and flax seeds. Add to them pieces of chocolate, mix.
Lightly heat the coconut oil so that it melts. Mix it with syrup. Pour the dry ingredients into this mixture. Mix everything well.
Put the products in a mold or several molds with a total area of about 60-80 square centimeters. Cover with parchment and press down so that the nut mass is compacted.
Place the form in an oven preheated to 160 degrees for half an hour.
Remove the form from the oven, let the product cool to room temperature.
Remove the parchment and cut the granola into pieces of the desired size. For this, it is better to use a sharp knife, preferably even with notches.

It remains to wrap the bars in parchment and put them in the fridge, where they can be stored for two weeks.

Useful granola from green buckwheat

Composition:

green buckwheat - 0, 2 kg;
cocoa powder - 50 g;
pitted dates - 10 pcs .;
sunflower seeds - 100 g;
coconut flakes - 50 g;
ginger powder - pinch;
cinnamon - a pinch;
refined vegetable oil - 40 ml;
honey - 40 ml.

Method of preparation:

Cut the dried dates into small pieces. Divide into two approximately equal parts. Put the first part in a bowl, while the second part is set aside.
Place buckwheat and sunflower seeds in a small saucepan. Fill them with cool water, leave for half an hour. Drain water. Drain buckwheat and seeds with a towel, shift to dates.
Add coconut chips to the food in the bowl, mix them.
Melt the honey, mix with vegetable oil. Continuing to warm the mixture in a water bath, add ginger, cinnamon and cocoa powder to it. Achieve a homogeneous liquid mass.
Mix the dry ingredients with the liquid mixture, mix.
Put the future granola on a baking tray covered with parchment. Send to oven preheated to 160 degrees and cook for 40 minutes.

After removing the granola from the oven, mix it with the remaining dates, after which the sweet food can be considered ready.

Apple Granola

Composition:

Hercules flakes - 190 g;
sesame seeds - 30 g;
sunflower seeds - 30 g;
almonds - 30 g;
cinnamon powder - 5 g;
apple - 150 g;
honey - 40 ml;
olive oil - 40 ml.

Method of preparation:

Finely chop the almonds with a knife, mix it with sesame and sunflower seeds.
Add oatmeal to the mixture of seeds and nuts, mix. Put cinnamon on them, mix again.
Wash the apple, blot it with a towel, clean and rub it.
Mix applesauce with butter and melted honey.
Combine oatmeal-nut mix with apple-honey.
Put the resulting mass on a baking sheet covered with parchment. Smooth.
Place the baking tray in the oven preheated to 130 degrees.
Cook the granola for half an hour, mixing it every 5 minutes.

Apple granola is considered one of the most tasty, although it is relatively inexpensive.

Granola - a sweet made from oatmeal or other flakes with the addition of nuts and fruits, mostly dried. A mixture of all these delicious ingredients combined with a dressing of honey or syrup, roasted in the oven. All this can be easily done in a regular kitchen. Granola is eaten for breakfast by adding fermented milk products, but if it is prepared in the form of bars, it can be served instead of sweets for tea.