Michèle's 'knit your own' granola

A few days ago, I shared a recipe for lentil 'bolognaise' in which I mentioned a friend who had supplied me with many recipes. This is one of hers.

You might be thinking, why the heck would I go the trouble of making my own breakfast cereal when I can nip down to Morrison's/Pick n Pay/Walmart and buy a box for tuppence ha'penny? That is a very good question! However, have you ever looked at the ingredients in a box of commercially produced breakfast cereal? If you want to start your day with something that's going to see you through for a while, and if you want your kids to be able to make it through to lunch without flagging, something more than a sugar hit is needed.

When our kids were little, we only allowed them to eat cereals that were sugar coated (or contained chocolate bits or whatever) on the weekends, so these became generically known as 'Saturday cereal'. During the week, they had to eat something with a bit more staying power. Michèle's recipe was pretty good for that.

And yummy. Let's not forget yummy.

Oven temperature

150C

Ingredients

1kg oats (this time around, I used jumbo oats because I happened to have some left over from the flapjacks, but you can use porridge oats, too)
120g wholewheat flour
100g dessicated coconut (unsweetened)
250ml sunflower oil
175ml honey (on this occasion, I happened to have spare maple syrup in the house and I used that. Michèle sometimes used to use golden syrup if she was out of honey, but I thought that spoiled the taste completely)
30ml vanilla extract

Method

Toast in the oven

• Heat the oil, honey and vanilla, stirring to blend. Do not overheat, or try to bring to the boil.
• Mix the dry ingredients together in a (very) large bowl.
• Add the liquid and mix well, getting an even distribution of the liquid through the whole batch.
• Using a wide flat container such as the oven roasting tray, heat for 30 minutes. Every now and again, take the granola out of the oven and stir it a bit, or the bottom may singe. You will probably have to do this in two or three batches.
• Eat with fruit, yoghurt and or milk. My son's girlfriend recently travelled to Hawaii on a school trip and shared a photo of a delicious-looking breakfast of half a papaya (pawpaw) with the pips scooped out and the hollow filled with vanilla yoghurt and granola.

Photo courtesy of Emily Fedorowycz