Hello everyone, I haven’t been doing a lot of recipe development recently since I’ve been working on a lot of cake orders, but I had the time (and random craving) for homemade granola, so I whipped some up, and recorded the amounts for future reference. Feel free to swap out any of the inclusions you don’t necessarily like — granola is something that is very customizable and delicious in all ways!

The main components that you will need in granola is oats, a liquid sweetener, oil, and any inclusions such as nuts, seeds, or dried fruit. I like to use either instant oats or rolled oats. Rolled oats will yield a larger oat size so I would recommend using that, but I happened to have instant oats on hand, and it works just fine. For the sweeteners, I like to use natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, or agave syrup, and for oil, you can use any neutral oil like canola or grapeseed oil, but I like to use melted coconut oil.

As for the inclusions, you can go wild! Use any combination of nuts, seeds, and/or any dried fruit you like. I used chopped hazelnuts just because I had an abundance of these sitting in my cupboard, but feel free to use any other nuts such as almonds, cashews, or walnuts. If I had pepitas on hand I would definitely throw some in. I also decided to keep my granola fruit-free this time, but sometimes I will add dried pineapple chunks or chopped apricot pieces. You can even add in small dark chocolate chips, or cacao nibs if you’re in the mood for something chocolatey. Just be sure to add those in after the granola has completely cooled, to avoid melting the chocolate or having sticky dried fruit.

A slightly unordinary inclusion in this recipe would be the bee pollen. I aquired a bottle from a local bee farmer who happened to be a fellow vendor at the farmer’s market I participated in at the University of Toronto. Since then, I’ve been looking for ways to incorporate more bee pollen into my diet after hearing about all it’s health benefits, so I thought it’d be perfect in this granola. It’s definitely an optional add-on, but highly recommended!

Granola is delicious on everything from yogurt parfaits, to chocolate smoothies, and chia pudding. My favourite way to eat this granola is by layering up some greek yogurt, a drizzle of agave syrup, fresh or frozen blueberries, and topping it with granola. Let me know if you give this a try!