Bread with Walnuts and Carrots

Last weekend was weird. I had had enough cakes, cookies and jelly donuts for a while, so I did not feel like baking anything sweet. I still wanted to bake, but did not know what.

One reason for my frustration with sweets was that my last attempts at baking did not work out. Friday I wanted to bake Chocolate-Peanutbutter-Whoopies. Instead of pretty round whoopies, I created rock-like lumps. They got bigger in your mouth if you tried to eat them – not good. I must admit that I cannot blame the recipe, but only myself. I had been distracted when making the batter and had made a mistake – oops, my own fault.

The next day, Saturday, I made marble cake. I thought I could fight the Whoopies-frustration this way, and I also needed something to post on my blog. Well, the cake turned out great, but the frosting did not really go with it. No blog post. Frustrating again.

So Sunday I was running back and forth between my kitchen and my baking books. I wanted to bake, but what?

The solution was baking bread. I would be able to roam about the kitchen, and the result would not be sweet (we still had to eat the marble cake, which was more than enough sweet stuff for the weekend). Also, not much could go wrong. Fresh bread smells and tastes incredible, especially if it still slightly warm. Each bite is pure pleasure.

There are so many recipes in this book that I always find something I am curious to try – this time light yeast bread with walnuts and carrots. As with carrot cake, the carrots make the bread moist, but do not make the bread taste like carrots.

The bread saved my baking-weekend and (partially) brought back my belief in my baking skills. I had already started to doubt those.

Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups (200 g) flour
¾ cup (100 g) spelt flour, light
1 ¾ cups (200 g) whole wheat flour
1 package (7 g) active dry yeast
1 egg, room temperature
½ cup (⅛ l) milk, lactose-free, lukewarm
½ cup (⅛ l) water, lukewarm
1 teaspoon salt
50 g walnuts, coarsely chopped
100 g carrots, finely grated

Preparation:
In a big mixing bowl, combine flour, spelt flour and whole wheat flour, salt and dry yeast. Add lukewarm milk, water and eggs. Knead to a smooth dough with the kitchen machine, using the dough hook. Add the carrots and the walnuts and knead for about five minutes. Cover with a kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size. This will take about an hour.

Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 355° F (180° C) (conventional oven).

Thoroughly knead the dough once more. Separate into two equal halves. Form each half into a longish bread. Place the two loaves onto the baking sheet, cover with a kitchen towel and let them rise for about 30 minutes.

Having risen for the second time: off to the oven!

Sprinkle the bread with water, or slightly brush it with water. Bake for about 30 minutes. The bread will be done if a knock against the bottom sounds hollow.

From: Ager, B. (2010). Lass dich verführen 3. Hall in Tirol, Wien: Berenkamp.

Chocolate Shock Cookies

A friend of mine is a baker. He likes to experiment – in his shop you will at times find goodies like chocolate with extra-hot chili (he grows the chili himself!) or cookies with lavender. For his birthday, I will give him these cookies, with the recipe attached – maybe he will like them and sell them in his store!

The original recipe uses white chocolate, which contains lactose. I wanted to make a lactose-free version for myself, so I produced a second batch in which I replaced the white chocolate with chopped walnuts. I must admit that I like this version better than the one with white chocolate. The walnuts go extremely well with the dark chocolate batter!

The cookies did not turn out as pretty as I had hoped, so I initially did not want to publish the recipe on my blog. Only when I realized that the kids kept walking into the kitchen to get another cookie, I tried one – and changed my opinion. The cookies are not too sweet and have an intense and smooth chocolaty taste. They are just the way a rich chocolate cookie should be, even if they do not look perfect!

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups (300 g) flour
1 ⅓ cup (100 g) unsweetened cocoa (sieved)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup / 4 sticks (250 g) butter, room temperature
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 tbsp. sugar beet syrup
1 tsp. vanilla sugar (not vanillin)
2 large eggs, room temperature

Version 1 (= containing lactose):
1 cup (150 g) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup (150 g) white chocolate, coarsely chopped
Decoration:
⅓ cup (50 g) white chocolate

Version 2 (= lactose-free)
1 cup (150 g) dark chocolate, lactose-free, coarsely chopped
1 cup plus 3 tbsp. (150 g) walnuts, coarsely chopped
Decoration:
⅓ cup (50 g) milk chocolate, lactose-free

Preheat the oven to 375 ° F (190° C) (convection oven: 355° F,180° C). Cover baking sheets with baking parchment.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

In another mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar and syrup with a handmixer or kitchen machine until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla sugar and beat for another three minutes.

Add the flour-cocoa-mixture. Beat it into the batter with the hand mixer/kitchen machine at low speed or with a wooden spoon. The batter will be quite heavy and firm.

Version 1 (= containing lactose): Add the chopped chocolate and stir into the batter with a wooden spoon.

Version 2 (= lactose-free): Add the chopped chocolate and the chopped walnuts and stir into the batter with a wooden spoon.

Drop tablespoons of batter onto the baking sheets and bake for about 10-13 minutes. Keep your eye on the cookies – they get burnt at the edges fast! Rather take them out of the oven a little early than keep them in the oven too long. They will firm up when they cool.

Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let them cool.

Decoration:
Place the cookies side by side on a cooling rack, a baking sheet or baking parchment. If you use a cooling rack, place baking parchment beneath it – it will make tidying up the working surface a lot easier!

For the glazing, coarsely chop while chocolate (version 1) or lactose-free milk chocolate (version 2). Melt in a double boiler or on the stove at very low heat. Put the melted chocolate into a small plastic bag and cut off an edge. You now have a self-made icing bag.

Decorate the cookies with the glazing by moving the icing bag over the cookies diagonally.

Makes about 30 large cookies.

 

Adapted from: Cynthia Barcomi´s Backbuch (2007), München: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag.

Oreo Chocolates and Caramelized Nuts (“Knusperle”)

This December was a bit different from what I had expected. An injured daughter (nothing serious), a very ill cat, a minor car accident, some other “small” troubles, and a massive cold interrupted my plans very much. With all those things going on, I did not get around to baking as much as I would have liked to. At least I managed to make my favorite cookies:

Walnut Cookies, Heart-shaped cookies with Rosehip-Jam, Wachauer Cookies (with chocolate shortcrust and vanilla-buttercream-filling), Marzipan Crescents, Ischler Cookies, Coconut Wedges.

I especiall like it when there is a big plate full of Christmass cookies. In my opinion, this just looks beautiful, very festive and Christmassy.

I will give you two more recipes now, the rest will follow next year!

Oreo Chocolates

I came across the recipe for these Oreo Chocolates last week, at schaufenster.diepresse.com. They sounded so good that I had to try the recipe. Oero cookies are one of the few store-bought cookies which do not contain lactose, and I am always ready to experiment when I discover a recipe which uses Oreos. In this recipe, Oreos were combined with cream cheese, and the mixture was coated with chocolate – it HAD to taste great, I thought. Well, it does!

In the original recipe, the balls were coated with white chocolate, then decorated with dark-chocolate-patterns and red and white sugar sprinkles. They looked very pretty.

Because of the lactose intolerance, I could not use white chocolate, so I dipped the Oreo Chocolates into dark chocolate. I did not have red and green sugar sprinkles at home, so I used chocolate sprinkles and decorating sugar instead. For decorating these balls, you can use anything you want – go play!

Ingredients:
32 Oreo Cookies (in Austria: 2 packages of Oreo Cookies)
7 oz. (200 g) cream cheese, lactose-free

Chocolate glazing:
200 g dark chocolate, lactose-free (Lindt 70%, Merci 72%)
1-2 tbsp. butter

Slice the Oreo Cookies open. Scratch out the filling with a knife and put the filling into a mixing bowl.

Add the cream cheese to the Oreo-filling. With a hand mixer, combine well.

Put the rest of the Oreos into a plastic bag. With a rolling pin, smash them into very small crumbs. Alternatively you can grind them in a food processor. I prefer the rolling pin method as my food processer somehow cannot grind cookies well.

Add the crumbs to the cream cheese mixture and combine well.

Form balls of about 1 inch diameter. Cool for about one hour.

Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment.

For the chocolate glazing, cut the chocolate into small pieces. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Add more butter if the glazing is too thick.

Place the balls onto a fork and dip them into the chocolate glazing; they should be completely coated with chocolate glazing. Put the balls onto the baking sheet and immediately decorate with sugar sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, decorating sugar.

Depending on how big you make them, you will get about 25 Oreo Chocolates.

Store in the fridge.

Nuts in Caramel / “Knusperle”

This is another of my favorite cookies. The recipe is not as simple as it seems. I have made these cookies lots of times, but am always surprised by how much work they are. First of all, it takes a long time until all the nuts are roasted. Second, you might burn your fingers because the nuts and the caramel get unbelievably hot. And finally you will have to work really fast in order to separate the caramel-nuts-mixture into small cookie-sized portions. If you are too slow, you will get a huge caramel-nut-lump which you will never ever get apart again. Lots of work – but the result will be overwhelming, I promise!

Ingredients:

1 ⅔ cup (375 g) sugar
⅔ sticks (80 g) butter
1 cup (125 g) whole hazelnuts
1 cup (125 g) peeled almond halves
1 cup (125 g) walnut halves

Chocolate glazing:
About 100 g dark chocolate, lactose-free (Lindt 70%, Merci 72%)
2 tbsp. butter

Heat the oven to 350° F (175°) C.

Spread the hazelnuts onto a baking sheet and roast for about 10-15 minutes. The skins should get dry and start to crack. Keep an eye on the hazelnuts: if they get too dark, they will taste burnt and bitter.

When the hazelnuts are roasted, pour them onto an (old) kitchen towel. Close the towel over the nuts and rub them against each other so that the skins will come off. Be careful – the nuts will be very hot! It might be a good idea to wear kitchen gloves while doing this. It is okay if you cannot get all the skins off; it will not matter.

Put the roasted and skinned hazelnuts into a heat resistant bowl.

Roast the almond halves until light brown, add them to the hazelnuts. Roast the walnuts until light brown, add to the other nuts.

Put all the nuts onto the baking sheet again; do not turn off the oven.

Generously butter a second baking sheet.

In a big pan, melt a small amount of the sugar at medium heatd. Gradually add the rest of the sugar and melt until golden brown or light brown.

Now you will have to work fast: Put the baking sheet with the nuts into the oven to warm the nut mixture.

Also put the buttered baking sheet into the oven.

Add the butter to the melted sugar and stir in well.

Remove the buttered baking sheet from the oven and place it onto a heat-resistant coaster.

Remove the baking sheet with the nut mixture from the oven and stir the hot nuts into the caramel until they are thoroughly coated with caramel.

Pour the mixture onto the warm, buttered baking sheet. Make sure you spread the mixture over the entire baking sheet. This will make it easier to form cookie-sized portions as some of the nuts will have separated already.

With two wet teaspoons, immediately separate the caramel-nut-mixture into small, cookies sized heaps. The mixture will firm up fast, so you will have to hurry! Let the mixture cool.

Chocolate glazing:
Cut the chocolate into small pieces. In a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter.

Coat the bottoms of the Caramelized Nuts with chocolate glazing.

Depending on the size, you will get about 70 cookies.

From: Neef, K. (1995). Nürnberger Weihnachtsbackbuch. München: Walter Hädecke Verlag.

(Frustratingly crumbly) Carrot Cake with Walnuts and Cream Cheese Frosting

Life was so busy lately that I simply did not get around to writing for this blog. Work, work, work, helping the kids with their studies, housekeeping, and all the rest. No time for writing.

At the weekend I decided to bake, despite all the work I had to do. I thought it would give me the feeling that there was still something like a “normal” life left. I tried hard to make a pretty and tasty cake, but it did not really work out. It is certainly better to do your baking when you have enough time for it and do not have to do all kinds of additional activities besides!

The recipe I chose was also not ideal, considering that the weekend was quite full already. I wanted to bake this Carrot Cake, which has already gone wrong once. When I baked it in a loaf pan as the recipe said, it looked like this:

 

The cake kept bothering me. The taste was excellent. Dark, moist, not too sweet, with an intense aroma of walnuts and cinnamon and a hint of lemon. I could not understand why it had not risen. That is why I decided to try it again.

This time I baked the Carrot Cake in a round baking pan. I was hoping that this way the batter would rise better than in the loaf pan. I was planning to fill and frost the cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, and to decorate it with caramelized walnuts.

Unfortunately, this second attempt did not work out as I had planned. The cake was baked right through, but it was so moist and crumbly that I had a hard time cutting it into two layers. I ended up turning the cake upside down onto a plate with the bottom of the pan still attached to the cake, then cutting it horizontally in two layers. Next I took the bottom of the pan off, together with the top layer. This worked.

After filling the cake with the frosting, I put the cake together again. I could not match bottom and top layer exactly because the top layer would have fallen apart. The cake therefore looked quite lopsided. It was also so crumbly that I could not spread the frosting onto it without mixing lots of crumbs into the frosting.

I also expected the caramelized nuts to be different, but was positively surprised by them.

Initially I did not want to present this cake in my blog, but then I thought, why not? It might not look perfect, but the taste was good. I will certainly make it again, if only to find out how to make it turn out exactly the way I want it to be!

Ingredients:

Batter:
4 eggs
1 ¼ cup (225 g) brown sugar
10.7 oz (300 g) carrots, peeled and grated
2 ½ cups (250 g) ground walnuts
½ + ⅓ cups (120 g) chopped walnuts
Grated lemon peel of 1 organic lemon
juice from ½ lemon
½ cup (60 g) flour

2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 pinches salt

Cream Cheese Frosting:
14.3 oz. (400 g) cream cheese, lactose-free
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 ⅔ cups (160 g) powdered sugar, sieved

Caramelized walnuts:
12 halved walnuts
1/3 cup (70 g) sugar
1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. whipping cream

Grease a round baking pan and dust with flour.

Preheat the oven to 355° F (180° C).

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar with a kitchen machine or a hand mixer at maximum speed for at least 5 minutes until fluffy.

Fold in the grated carrots, then the ground and the chopped walnuts, the lemon juice and the lemon peel.

Gently fold in the flour mixture.

Pour the dough into the baking pan and bake for 20 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 270° F (130° C). Keep the door of the oven open a bit with a wooden spoon. Bake the cake for about 55 minutes, until it is browned. It will be done when a toothpick inserted in the center came out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
With the hand mixer, beat cream cheese, lemon juice and powdered sugar at medium speed.

Caramelized walnuts:
In a small pan, melt sugar and butter until the sugar has turned golden brown. Stir occasionally. Add the whipping cream. Be careful – the mixture might bubble up and splatter! Stir until all the lumps have dissolved and the caramel is smooth.

Add the twelve walnut halves to the caramel and stir until they are covered with caramel. Take the nuts out and individually place them onto a piece of tin foil. Pour or spoon the remaining caramel over them. Let the nuts cool down completely.

Finishing:
Horizontally cut the cake into two layers and fill with about one third of the Cream Cheese Frosting. Put the cake together and spread with the remaining frosting. Decorate with the caramelized walnuts.

For a quicker version, skip the frosting and the caramelized walnuts. Simply sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar instead and enjoy!

Adapted from:

Trish Deseine (2010), I Love Cake, München: AT Verlag.

Crunchy Granola with Nuts

My kids love breakfast cereals – unfortunately those from the stores, with lots of sugar. For them they are an easy and quick breakfast. They do not care about the fact that they contain a lot of sugar. They like the taste, and the fact that all they have to do in the morning is pour the cereal into a bowl, add the milk and eat. No laborious spreading of butter and jam on a slice of bread. Much easier.

About a year ago I accidentally discovered a recipe for homemade granola, a chocolate granola. I was fascinated. I had had no idea that you can bake your own granola! I immediately tried the recipe and was thrilled by the result. The kids even ate it for breakfast, even though it was not as sweet as the cereals from the store.

I have since been making our granola myself, in different varieties. Apart from the fact that those granolas are a lot healthier than those from the stores, for me this has the additional advantage that I can create a granola that I myself can eat without problems. For example, most recipes bind the dry ingredients with maple syrup or honey. I use rice syrup instead. I also omit dried fruit and use more nuts instead. The granola thus does not contain a lot of fructose and is okay for me.

This variety is a crunchy mixture of flakes and nuts.

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup (100 g) rolled oats
1 ¼ cup (100 g) spelt flakes
½ cup (90 g) oat bran
½ cup (55 g) almonds, coarsely chopped
½ cup (65 g) walnuts, coarsely chopped
½ cup (65 g) hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
½ cup coconut flakes
1-2 tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

For the more or less fructose-free variety:
½ cup (120 ml) rice syrup

For the variety containing fructose:
½ cup (120 ml) maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 350° F (175° C).

Cover a baking sheet with baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the coconut flakes.

Spread the mixture on the baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the coconut flakes and bake for another 5 minutes.

Remove the granola from the oven and let it cool down.

Store in an airtight container.

 

Adapted from:

http://call-me-cupcake.blogspot.co.at

Brownies with Cream Cheese and Walnuts

In other blogs you will now, at the end of September, find all kinds of delicious recipes with plums, apples and pears. Because of fructose-intolerance, I unfortunately have to avoid those fruits. I therefore do not bake much with them, unless it is for family or friends.
Nevertheless on those cold fall days I crave comfort food which makes me feel warm and happy. These Brownies with all their chocolate and the nuts definitely belong to this category.

I slightly adapted the recipe by Cynthia Barcomi. I find the original version a bit too sweet.
Sometimes when I make these Brownies I skip the sugar beet syrup. I happened to have it at home, so of course I used it. The result was extra-ordinary.
This time I used a mixture of 250 g cheaper lactose-free chocolate, namely „Bensdorp Haushaltsschokolade,” with 42% cocoa, and 100 g Merci 72 % cocoa.

Ingredients:
Batter:
2 cups (400 g) sugar
5 eggs
1 tbsp. sugar beet syrup (optional)
12.5 oz. (350 g) dark chocolate, lactose-free (e.g. Bensdorp Haushaltsschokolade, Lindt 70%, Merci 72%)
2 sticks (250 g) butter
2 cups (210 g) flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
⅔ cup (80 g) walnuts (not chopped)
Cream cheese mixture:
13 oz. (360 g) cream cheese, lactose-free
¾ stick (90 g) butter, softened
⅔ cup (130 g) sugar
3 eggs
Topping:
1½ cups (180 g) walnuts (not chopped)
Preheat the oven to 355° F (180° C). Grease a baking pan (~9 inches x 123 inches; ~24cm x 32 cm).
Break the chocolate into small pieces. Cut the butter into small cubes. Melt the chocolate and the butter in a double boiler or on the oven over very low heat. Let the mixture cool down.
While the chocolate mixture is cooling, mix flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
Whisk the eggs in a large bowl, then beat in the sugar and the sugar beet syrup.
Next whisk the cooled chocolate-butter-mixture into the egg-mixture.
Stir in the flour mixture. It should just combine with the liquid mixture, so do not stir too long!
Put about ¼ of the batter into a second bowl and set aside.
Stir the walnuts into the remaining ¾ of the batter.
In another mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, the softened butter, the sugar and the eggs with a hand mixer on low speed.
Pour the batter with the walnuts into the baking pan and spread evenly.
Carefully spread the cream cheese mixture onto the batter. You should not see any chocolate batter any more.
Spoon the remaining chocolate batter onto the cream cheese mixture in several big blotches.
With a toothpick, a skewer or a knitting needle, draw patterns into the brownies, thus creating a marble pattern.
Sprinkle the brownies with the remaining walnuts.
Bake for about 40 minutes. The Brownies will be done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Maple Walnut Ice Cream

Dealing with food intolerances is not always easy. I know quite well which food I can eat and which food I should rather avoid, but keeping to my diet can sometimes be a challenge. To me, avoiding lactose seems easier than avoiding fructose. Sugar, for example, contains fructose. As I said in „About”, I consider myself fortunate since I tolerate sugar. This means I can bake with normal sugar and do not have to substitute it with stevia, glucose, rice syrup, or other substitutes.

When baking, though, I often wonder if I should go for a certain recipe which will contain fructose, or not. I automatically exclude recipes with a high amount of fructose, e.g. recipes with lots of dried or fresh fruit or with a lot of honey. I would not tolerate those recipes well.

I do make recipes which are comparatively low in fructose, though, as e.g. recipes with a rather small amount of fruit (e.g. Joghurt Cake with Peaches), recipes with fruit which contains a low amount of fructose (e.g. rhubarb), sometimes recipes with e.g. 1 tsp. honey. Since I generally try to avoid fructose in my diet as much as possible, it is okay for me if on special occasions I eat a small amount of such a cake, pie or ice cream.

I tolerate this Maple Walnut Ice Cream very well. Maple syrup seems to have a rather high amount of fructose, though I do not know how much. So far I have not been able to find reliable and detailed information on the amount of fructose in maple syrup. However, if you have severe fructose intolerance, this ice cream is probably not ideal for you.

There is really not much I can say about the recipe itself, except that the ice cream is incredibly creamy and smooth, tastes fantastic, and is extremely easy to make.

The basis for the Maple Walnut Ice Cream is the same as for the Peanut Butter Ice Cream, i.e. a basis without eggs. I like that. No raw eggs in my food.

Ingredients:
For the ice cream base:
2 cups (480 ml) whipping cream, lactose-free
¾ cup (160 g) sugar
⅓ cup (80 ml) whipping cream, lactose-free
⅓ cup (80 ml) milk, lactose-free

Additionally:
¼ cup maple syrup, preferably grade C
½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Put 2 cups of whipping cream into a mixing bowl. I prefer to use a bowl which comes with a tight a lid. This allows me to chill the mixture in the same bowl I use for preparing it. I simply cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator.

Gradually whisk in the sugar until it is completely blended. This takes about 2-3 minutes. Make sure you do not whisk too much! The mixture should have the consistency of whipping cream, not whipped cream.

Pour in the ⅓ cup whipping cream and the milk. Whisk until blended.

Add the maple syrup and stir until blended.

Chill the mixture in the fridge for about 2 hours, then whisk it once more and freeze it in your ice cream maker, following the instructions.

About 2 minutes before the ice cream is done, add the chopped walnuts.

Continue freezing until the ice cream is ready.

The ice cream tastes best when fresh, but keeps in the freezer for several days.

Adapted from: „Ben and Jerry´s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book.“

Granola

I do not eat granola from the store since they often contain ingredients I have problems with, such as lactose, oligofructose, dried fruit. Instead I make my granola myself. That way I can put in ingredients I tolerate well.

This granola recipe is originally not made with rice syrup, but with honey and maple syrup. Both are are difficult with fructose intolerance. I therefore usually substitute the honey and the maple syrup with rice syrup.

The last time I made this granola was for a brunch with friends. As I wanted to make sure they would enjoy the granola, I prepared the honey-maple syrup version. To my surprise I found out that I am okay with this recipe and can eat it without any problems. I suppose that is because I do not eat huge amounts of it in one setting, but just a couple of tablespoons.

So for those of you who are not that sensitive to fructose, I will also explain how to prepare the honey – maple syrup version.

In my opinion, this granola tastes much better than granola from the store. It´s crunchy and nutty and goes well with plain yoghurt. It also fills you up nicely.

The picture shows the honey – maple syrup version I made for the brunch.

Ingredients:
6 ½ cups (~500 g) rolled oats
⅔ cup (50 g) shredded coconut
⅔ cup (100 g) sunflower seeds
⅔ cup (110 g) pumpkin seeds
1 cup (120 g) almond kernels
1 cup (110 g) pecans or walnuts
¼ cup oil (60 g), e.g. sunflower oil

For a fructose-free version:
½ cup rice syrup

For a version containing fructose:
¼ cup (75 g) honey
¼ cup (75 g) maple syrup

Coarsely chop the pumpkin seeds, almond kernels and pecans or walnuts.

Mix oats, coconut, sunflower seeds and chopped nuts in a big bowl. I really mean a big bowl! I always use my kitchen machine bowl. My other bowls are simply too small for this amount of ingredients.

Put half of the mixture into another bowl.

In a small pot, heat the oil and the rice syrup (or the oil, the honey and the maple syrup) until thin and runny. Pour over one half of the oat mixture. Use a spoon to stir it in really well. If the mixture is too wet and clumps together, add more dry oats. This has actually never happened when I made this granola. The amounts given in the list of ingredients above work just fine.

Cover a baking tray with baking paper. Spread the oil-syrup-oats combination onto the paper and bake at 170° F (~130° C, convection oven) for about 60 minutes. Stir occasionally. The mixture should be light brown.

Let the baked combination cool, then pour it into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Store the granola in an airtight container.

Variation 1, Chocolate Granola:
Add 2 tablespoons cocoa powder to the dry ingredients while the syrup-oats combination is in the oven. Mix well. Let the baked combination cool, then pour it into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Variation 2, Granola with dried fruit:
The original recipe contains ⅔ cup (230 g) raisins, currants or sultanas and 110 g dried dates or figs. If you have no problems with fructose, you can add the dried fruit to the dry ingredients together with the syrup-oats combination.

Recipe adapted from: whatkatieate.blogspot.com