Chai Spiced Granola
Ah, its always the simple things.
If you have ever looked on the back of a (super expensive) bag of tasty looking granola you will notice two things – the ingredients are simple and the sugar content is HUGE! Suddenly that healthy looking breakfast isn’t so guilt free after all.
Luckily, it is easy to make your own and that means you can play with the recipe to include any fruits, nuts and spices you may wish and get the sweetness just right for you!
So here is a retreat breakfast favourite, chai spiced granola! I challenge you to not pick at it while its cooling down…
Ingredients
Giant Oats - 4 cups - good quality oats do make a difference
Coconut Flakes – optional
Nuts – As may as preferred, I personally like almonds and cashews but you can add whatever variety you wish.
Coconut Oil – 2 large tablespoons
Honey or Agave – 3 large tablespoons or a little bit more if you have a sweet tooth.
Vanilla extract – ½ teaspoon
Chai Spice – You can buy already blended chai spice however I like my chai to be a little less cloves and a little more cinnamon so make my own.
Chai Spice Mix
Cinnamon ground – 2 teaspoons and a little sprinkle to go on top
Cardamom ground – 1 teaspoon
Ginger ground – 1 teaspoon
Black Pepper – ¼ teaspoon
Cloves ground – ¼ teaspoon
Salt – ¼ teaspoon
All Spice – ¼ teaspoon, optional
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180
2. Line a baking tray with baking paper – trust me, it doesn’t work without it!
3. Melt but do not overly heat the coconut oil and add your spice mix. This helps blend the spices evenly, enhance the flavour and take the powdery feeling away from the grounds.
4. In a large bowl add your oats and any extra goodies such as nuts and coconut.
TIP – If you add fruit in at the start it can burn before the granola is cooked. I like to add any
fruity bits at the end because no one likes a burnt current!
5. Mix all the oats and extras together and then add the honey, vanilla extract and spiced coconut oil.
6. Mix, mix, mix until everything is evenly coated in coconut spiced honey goodness.
7. Spread evenly over your baking paper - if you like big clusters then spread quite thickly.
8. Put it in the middle of the oven and reduce the heat to 80 /100 straight away. – By trial and error I have found that the low and slow method works the best!
9. Keep an eye on it - It takes between 25 to 45 minutes to bake depending on how thick your layer is. The trick is to get it JUST to golden brown for the best flavour.
10. Remove from the oven once golden and place it on the side to cool down. At this point I advise leaving the room or you will devour the whole thing while it is warm.
11. Once it has totally cooled down and is crispy, break it into chunks/clusters/pieces and store in a large jar for up2 weeks. If it lasts that long...
