Granola

• 3 cupsold-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cupmixed nuts · roughly chopped
• 1/2 cuppumpkin and sunflower seeds
• 1/3 cupneutral oil
• 1/3 cupmaple syrup
• 1 tspvanilla extract
• 1 tspground cinnamon
• 1/2 tspsea salt
• 1/2 cupdried fruit · added after baking

Methode

1. 1

   Start with large rolled oats, not quick or steel-cut

   Tip old-fashioned rolled oats into your biggest bowl along with any nuts and seeds you want, chopped roughly so they toast at the same rate. Big flat flakes are what let granola clump into clusters and toast evenly; quick oats bake to dust and steel-cut stay stubbornly raw. Adding the nuts and seeds now means they get coated and toasted along with the oats rather than scattered raw on top. This dry base is the backbone of the whole tray.

2. 2

   Get the wet-to-dry ratio right

   Whisk together a neutral or light oil and maple syrup in roughly equal parts, enough to coat every oat with a light sheen when you toss it through. Too little and the granola bakes dry and pale and never clusters; too much and it turns greasy and takes forever to crisp. The oil carries the heat and browning, the maple sweetens and helps the clusters set as it caramelises. Pour it over and toss thoroughly so there are no dry patches left in the bowl.

3. 3

   Season it, granola is not just sweet

   Add a good pinch of salt, a spoon of vanilla, and warm spice like cinnamon before it goes on the tray. Salt is the difference between granola that tastes flat and one that tastes moreish, exactly as it is in any baking. A little vanilla and cinnamon give it depth so it does not read as one-note sweet. Fold these through the wet oats evenly. This seasoning step is quietly what makes a homemade batch taste better than most boxes.

4. 4

   Press it flat into a single layer

   Spread the mix onto a lined tray and press it down firmly into an even, compact layer with the back of a spatula. This pressing is the first half of the cluster secret: pieces that are pushed together while wet bake into big sheets you can snap into chunks, while a loose, mounded scatter just bakes into individual toasted oats. Keep it to a single layer so it toasts evenly. A gentle, firm press all over sets you up for proper clusters.

5. 5

   Bake low and slow

   Bake at 150C, low and slow, for around thirty minutes rather than blasting it hot. Granola burns easily because of the syrup, and a hot oven browns the outside while the inside is still soft and damp. A gentle heat dries it out evenly to a deep, even gold all the way through, which is where the crunch comes from. Set a timer and check it from twenty-five minutes; it should smell toasty and look golden, not dark.

6. 6

   Stir once at most, or not at all

   If you want fine, free-flowing granola, stir it once halfway; if you want big clusters, do not stir it at all. This is the second half of the cluster secret. Every time you turn the tray you break apart the sheets that are trying to form, which is exactly why shop granola marketed on its clusters is so gently handled. For chunks, rotate the tray for even colour but leave the granola itself alone until it comes out.

7. 7

   Cool completely on the tray before touching it

   Take the tray out while the granola still looks and feels a little soft, and leave it to cool completely without touching it. This is the step everyone rushes and it is the most important: granola crisps as it cools, not in the oven, as the caramelised syrup sets hard around the oats. Break into it warm and you get chewy, disappointing clumps and you smash the clusters. Wait the full twenty minutes and it firms into proper, snappable crunch.

8. 8

   Add dried fruit after baking and store airtight

   Once the granola is completely cool, break it into clusters and only then stir through any dried fruit, then store it in an airtight jar. Dried fruit baked in the oven turns to hard, burnt little rocks, so it always goes in at the end. Kept sealed and dry, the granola stays crunchy for two to three weeks, longer than it usually lasts. If it ever softens, a few minutes back in a low oven and a full cool crisps it up again.