Spiced Granola – easy AND healthy!

Granola is such an easy, simple and delicious snack to make! We use it for chia pudding at porridge which we eat a lot of every week!

I love having a fresh batch of homemade granola ready in the kitchen. It makes for a delicious snack, quick breakfast, and beautiful topping. This rendition in particular is subtly spiced, creating a really nice flavour profile. The hints of ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla, just so delicious!!

Making your own granola couldn’t be easier! Why are you going to love it? Well it’s:

• Easy
• Naturally sweetened
• Healthier
• Fast to make!

What’s in this granola?

Oats

The star of the show! This is the ingredient to create the base of this recipe. It’s so easily adaptable to ANY taste! The beautiful hue of brown is such a beautiful effect of toasting oats in the oven.

Nut/seed butter

For this version, I decided on tahini. It went great with the spiced flavour profile.

Maple syrup

This adds the lovely sweetness to tie it all together.

Ground spices

I used a combination of cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla. This gave it a beautiful fragrance and subtle spice. While salt is not a spice that you would think of necessarily adding to this recipe, it does a wonderful job of heightening all the flavors.

Add ons

I love adding some texture and crunch. This time I did shredded coconut, chopped pecans, and chopped dates. The possibilities are endless of what you can add in.

What type of oats is best to use?

I’m a fan of using whatever you have on hand as vegan cooking can get out of hand especially with things like nut butter etc. So if you only have quick oats at home they’ll do just fine. You just have to keep an eye on them because they will brown and crisp up much faster than rolled outs. I enjoy using rolled outs for this recipe because of how they look and because they make my granola more “chunky” and “clumpy”.

Additional Mix In Ideas

There’s so many options when it comes to what to add into your granola!

• Chocolate – chocolate chips, chunks, curls. I would add this after your baking is done though. Adding it before will result in a delicious chocolate chip cookie sort of granola!
• Dried fruits – apricots, raisins, cranberries, figs, pears, peaches. I’ve done granola with dried pears and figs and boy was it a delicious combination!
• Seeds – pumpkin, sunflower
• Other nuts – pistachios, macadamias
• Super Powders – you can stir in some of your favourite super powders (like protein powder, ashwagandha, maca powder etc) to enjoy the additional benefits that these powders may have for you.

Can’t wait to see what combinations you guys come up with!

Ways to enjoy

Granola is a perfect way to enjoy your morning breakfast with a bit more crunch and flavor!

Try it with:

Chia pudding : we make chia pudding every week. It just doesn’t seem complete with a generous topping of this recipe on top!

Blueberry popsicles/lollies – you can put this at the base of these frozen treats and enjoy a crunch as you finish it off!

There’s so many other ways like in your porridge, on top of jam jars or even in your smoothie bowls! You can even take some yogurt and toss it in with some cut fruit. Delicious!

How to store your granola

When your batch has completely cooled, you can pack it in an airtight container, zip bag, or mason jars. Stored well, it will keep for about a month – but I’m sure it won’t actually last that long at your house! It’s usually gone within days 🙂

If you’ve made too much and you’d like to freeze them – that’s an option too!

Some additional tips

Depending on how hot your oven is, it’s a good idea to keep a timer half way through the bake so it doesn’t crisp or burn up too much.

You also don’t want to dig in right away as the oats need to cool down and become harder as time goes on. I’d keep it out for an hour or two or even overnight wrapped with a air proof sheet over the tray.

Please let me know if you’ve made this recipe or any of my others! I’d love to see pictures at @sculptedkitchen or leave a comment below!