Honey-sweet, chocolate-deep

Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
~ Lewis Carroll

I had a brief affair with cereal last year, when the Vanilla Cluster Cereal boxes at New World used to charm me with their glossy white fronts, delicious pictures splashed across them… promises of good mornings conveyed silently through something mysterious. Something in between attractive packaging and sweet crunchy clusters.

When I moved to Singapore last year for awhile, I spent $14 on a box of muesli at an expat supermarkets and never got through even half of it in a month. It didn’t ‘hit the spot’, and I either had pau (buns) or noodles and soy milk for breakfast, or nothing at all when I was rushing out the door to spend 1.5 hours in the bus and train to get to work.

Back in New Zealand, cereal and milk in a bowl seems like a good idea again.

It seemed appropriate to begin this gusty, grey Saturday with granola making…

The most time-consuming part of this was chopping the almonds; besides this, the recipe was a breeze to replicate. Even though I underestimated the time the cereal would take to cool down, and the chocolate bits are melting amidst the oats and almonds as a result…

Anyway, I have a bowl of sweet, crunchy, lovely lovely granola sitting on my kitchen bench.

The grey skies aren’t as dismal now.

Welcome to a beautiful day in Wellington!

French chocolate granola
Recipe adapted from Orangette

Ingredients:
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup dessert almonds, chopped
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tbsp granulated sugar
pinch of salt
6 tbsp mild honey
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3/4 cup chocolate drops

Method:
Preheat the oven to 150°C.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, almonds, coconut, sugar, and salt. Stir well to blend.

In a small saucepan, warm the honey and oil over low heat, whisking occasionally until the honey is loose. Pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to combine well.

Spread the mixture evenly on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for around 10 minutes, give it a good stir (to help it cook evenly) and put it back in the oven for a further 10 minutes, or until golden. When it’s ready, remove the pan from the oven, stir well – this will keep it from cooling into a hard, solid sheet – and cool completely.

When cool, transfer the granola to a large bowl, storage jar, or zip-loc plastic bag. Add the chocolate, and stir (or shake, if using a jar or bag) to mix.

Store in an airtight container. Serve with plain milk; soy milk and plain yogurt overwhelm the chocolate flavour.

Yields around 5 cups.