If you pay attention to a healthy diet, you can grab cereal in the morning. It is delicious, provides a lot of energy, fills you up for a long time, and is simply a healthy breakfast .
For a change, you can also use other crispy cereals such as granola . In the following article, you will find a few tips on how to bake your own granola.
What exactly is granola?
Originally from the USA,
The special thing about granola is that the oat flakes are baked in oil and sweetened with honey, syrup, or applesauce. This is not the case with conventional muesli. Granola with extra nuts is extra crunchy and just right for a crispy breakfast with fresh fruit or for snacking in between.
The crispy cereal is also popular for making cereal bars or as toppings for desserts, porridges or smoothie bowls. As with the muesli, you can prepare different granola variants according to your wishes and taste.
For the sweetness, you can create a granola with chocolate and coconut flakes or cranberries with pistachio, for example. But also savory with pumpkin and peppers is possible and also tastes great.
What makes granola so healthy?
A homemade granola is made from untreated ingredients. So it's best to use unsweetened ingredients to avoid all the hidden thickeners.
This is how granola is healthiest. Although the crispy muesli consists of sugar due to the honey and fruits, it is basically a quite healthy breakfast.
The individual ingredients such as oatmeal, nuts, seeds, and dried fruits are important building blocks for a healthy diet. In addition, you can also mix in berries , other fruits, and enjoy the whole thing with milk alternatives such as oat milk, almond milk, or rice milk.
When does the crispy cereal become unhealthy?
This crispy muesli will become unhealthy from the moment you add unnecessary sweeteners or frying agents. When buying ready-made blends, you should always keep an eye on how much fat and sugar they contain and whether additional sweeteners are used.
The cereal can still look healthy, but if there are hidden thickeners, it's not anymore. It is also no longer as filling as a fresh crispy cereal.
How do I bake my own granola muesli?
When preparing your granola muesli, you can let your creativity run wild. You can add anything you like. But of course, you have to work with oatmeal, nuts, kernels, and seeds.
Basically, all desired ingredients must be mixed with oil and honey and baked in the oven for about 30 minutes. Top heat the whole thing at 180 degrees.
Instead of the oil, you can also use applesauce, rapeseed oil, or dates. If you want the nuts to be a little smaller, you can, of course, crush or chop them beforehand.
Once the cereal is golden brown, take it out of the oven and let your crispy cereal cool down. If necessary, you can then break your granola into smaller pieces. And the delicious breakfast is ready.
The Bircher Muesli variant – simple recipe
Accessories
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Oven
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Baking tray
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(lockable) glass
Ingredients
- 375 g Bircher muesli (= one pack)
- 100 g oatmeal
- 75 g hazelnuts
- 25 g flaxseed
- 125 g maple syrup
- 100 ml sunflower oil
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
Preparation
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Preheat oven to 180° (top and bottom heat). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
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Chop hazelnuts with a knife until they are the desired size. If you want, you can also use whole hazelnuts.
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Mix Bircher cereal, oatmeal, chopped hazelnuts, flaxseed, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.
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Add sunflower oil and maple syrup and mix again well so that the entire muesli mixture is covered with oil and maple syrup.
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Place the mixture evenly on the prepared baking tray and distribute.
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Bake for 10 minutes, then briefly take out of the oven, turn the mixture with a spoon and bake for another 10 minutes.
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As soon as everything takes on a crispy brown color, remove the tin from the oven and allow to cool. Attention: During the last few minutes, you should keep a close eye on the crispy cereal so that it does not burn.
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For serving, we recommend (vegetable) yogurt and fresh, diced apple.
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Pour into an airtight glass for storage. Eat within 2 weeks.
Nutritional values
Granola ingredients for a delicious crunchy muesli
As already mentioned, the basic ingredients oatmeal, nuts, fruits, and sometimes puffed rice definitely belong in a granola. But you can add a lot more depending on what you're hungry for. Spices such as cinnamon, turmeric, or vanilla can also be used for refining.
Oatmeal
Baked oatmeal is the basic building block for granola and thus the most important ingredient. You can use fine or gritty flakes as you like or grab spelt flakes and rye flakes.
In addition, the flakes contain fiber, protein, important vitamins, and minerals. So they are a plus for a healthy diet because they also provide a lot of energy for the day. The baked oatmeal makes the muesli extra crunchy, which ultimately distinguishes a granola.
Nuts and kernels
With nuts and seeds, you can also make your granola even crispier, healthier, and tastier. Almonds, walnuts, cashews, peanuts, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds are particularly suitable for this purpose. And of course, anything else you can think of.
Together
Seeds also belong in a healthy breakfast. They contain a lot of good fats and are another vegetable protein source. For example, you can use chia seeds or flaxseeds here.
Honey, maple syrup, or agave syrup
You can sweeten baked oatmeal with honey or maple syrup. You can also use agave syrup. If you do not use oil to bake the oatmeal, but applesauce, then you do not need the oatmeal to be extra sweet.
Berries and fruits
Superfoods are not necessary to make it a healthy breakfast. Supplementing fresh fruit, such as berries, completes the cereal and provides enough vitamins and other important nutrients for the day. With fresh fruit, your cereal will be juicier and you will avoid a firm consistency due to the dry ingredients.
Other Granola Ingredients
Granola tastes great with yogurt, curd, milk, or other milk alternatives. Or with a glass of milk or juice, you can enjoy it just as much. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.
Healthy granola from Verival
To make the start of the day a little easier, Verival has already put together some ideas and the appropriate ingredient mix for a healthy granola that you can enjoy easily and quickly in the morning.
Puffed whole-grain rice crispies and baked whole-grain oats, spelt, or wheat provide the great crispy effect. The base of the granola is further refined with delicious ingredients. For example, a variety of fruits are used, coconut, or chocolate, and for sweetening, a little cane sugar or honey comes into the crunchy. But just see for yourself.
