I tried my hand at a nutty granola and granola bars last time, but, as much as I liked the crunch of these that much, I felt more like making a granola that was not only as yummy, but also soft, fruity and naturally sweet.  Keeping this in mind, I also wanted to reuse my existing recipe and adjust to my apparent need for a sweet(er) breakfast this week.

This granola has dried fruits such as kiwi and apple in them, that you can either dry yourself in t he oven at home, or they also come store-bought.  I added in coconut slices, cranberries, apple and kiwi, all chopped up with a sharp knife in chewable pieces, that are large enough to give you their full flavour, but small enough to not take over.

This granola doesn’t take that long to make, so you can easily toss this in while you are baking something else (pop into a tray on top) or when you are cooking dinner at the same time.  I have also done this granola as a once baked granola, rather than baking some things once, getting it back out of the oven and baking again. This keeps the granola softer, less crunchy and more brittle.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 coffee cups of oats
• 1 teaspoon of chia seeds
• 1 teaspoon of poppyseed
• handful of coconut slices, cut small
• handful of cranberries, cut small
• handful of dried apple slices, cut small
• handful of dried kiwi fruit slices, cut small
• 2 tablespoons honey, mixed with 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
• a pinch salt, cinnamon, and some vanilla extract

Method:

Similar to our granola bars, you first preheat your oven to 175C degrees.  Then take a sheet of baking paper and place this on top of your baking tray.  On top of the baking paper, you now poor your oats, poppy and chia seed, as well as your chopped coconut slices, cranberries, apple and kiwi.  Stir well so it’s all nicely and evenly mixed and spread out over the sheet.   Set aside for a few minutes.

Next you take a cup in which you poor your honey and coconut oil.  Onto this, add on a pinch of salt, ground cinnamon and some vanilla extract.   This is the only sweetening and fats we will add to the granola,

Poor the honey-water mixture over your raw granola and mix well, in aim to coat as much of the granola that you can coat, with our sweetener.  When happy with the mixing, put the tray into the oven for 10-15 minutes to give the granola time to properly absorb the honey mixture and bond a bit.  Please do keep an eye out on the granola mixture as some of the flakes will colour very quickly.   When done, take out of the oven and leave to cool.

You can keep this granola for up to 2 weeks in a jar or airtight container.  I often take some to work in a glass jar, which I leave at my desk in case I get hungry.  Enjoy!