Granola oh granola

Granola, hmm... I had them before.
I liked them but they were too expensive.
I switched to cereals and oats. But oats, as porridge after a while feels yucky and tasteless even with all the delicious toppings.

In fact I haven't had any for a long time, I often looked for the dried fruits under all that oats.
Then just the other night, I was watching a cooking programme on AFC, Urban Cook. An Indonesian cooking show actually and was fascinated by the way the show was done, quite different from our boring ones with a nosy, bored, uninterested 'host' and a over hyper chef...

What got my attention the most was how easy granola was prepared. Btw in that episode, he made granola bars, I didn't fancy egg whites in my granola even if it was baked...

So I surfed the net and searched for various recipes for granola.
I found some that were interesting but some didn't quite suited my taste buds or had too many steps.
Lastly I opted for an easy on on BBC Good Food.

I must say that I made it in the middle of the night, with ingredients that were in the fridge! So I left out a few things... but it was received very well by the masses and my next batch I'll try to stay true to the recipe.
As for the brown sugar bit, leave it out if you want. I just wanted the lovely taste and smell of caramel on the granola.
Since my mum loves raisins, I added a little bit more of dried fruits than required.

Here is the recipe, if you are interested. Like I said, I made some subtle changes, I believe that it should be suited to our individual taste and wallets.

Crunchy Granola with Berries and Cherries
source: BBC Good Food.

Ingredients
175g mixed nuts (I only had walnuts at that time)
450g oats (they didn't say rolled or instant but I used the instant one)
50g sesame seed
50g sunflower seed
100ml runny honey (I just scooped out the one in the small plastic bucket)
125ml sunflower oil (Any vegetable one will do)
80g dried berries and cherries (I used dried cranberries, raisins and apricots)
1 tsp salt (optional)
2 Tbsp brown sugar (I added this)

Method
Set the oven at 180C
Roughly chop all nuts and berries into at least bite size pieces.
In a bowl, combine all the oats, nuts, seeds and oats.
Pour in the honey and oil into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix well.
Tip the contents onto a baking tray and gently pat to even the mixture.
This is so it cooks evenly.
Lastly sprinkle the brown sugar over the oat mixture.

Bake for 25 to 30 min, until golden brown.
Keep stirring it, at least twice at intervals.
Keep checking because the oats burn easily.

Once golden brown, take out of the oven and cool.
When cooled, toss in the dried fruits or berries and mix well with the granola.
Now it is ready and can be stored in an air tight container.

Eat with milk, yogurt even ice cream is good or just on its own.
Drink lots of water.

Happy Baking.