Coconut & Mixed Nut Granola

The Bearded Bakery - Coconut Granola

Lockdown is still going. We’ve stocked up on dried goods but we’re avoiding going to supermarkets, opting mainly for a veg box delivery and buying dried goods like flour, nuts and seeds from specialised online stores or smaller local independent shops. We’ve been finding places like this to be well stocked and quieter. As such, access to normal cereal has been minimal, but access to the components to make granola has been significantly easier. So we finally felt it was time to try and make a homemade granola recipe.

The Bearded Bakery | Homemade Granola

I’ll keep this pretty simple. The key ingredients in this recipe are as follows, and you can mix and match some of the other bits.

  1. Oil – we used butter
  2. Oats
  3. Sugar
  4. Desiccated coconut
  5. Syrup – we used a split of 50/50 split of honey and golden syrup, but different ratios and different syrups will work
  6. Nuts – we used a mixture of different nuts but you can mix and match. Opt for a cheaper nut for the bulk like a walnut unless you’re feeling particularly flush. We also used some seeds.

The key is the oil and sugars as they’ll get the granola nice and crunchy and help it cling together. The types of nuts you use are less essential and more come down to flavour combinations, what you can get hold of and what you can afford to use. For clarity, we used almonds walnuts, pistachios, flaked almonds and pumpkin seeds. The main nuts being almonds and walnuts.

This recipe will make about 1kg of granola, you can multiply it to make more.

The Bearded Bakery - Granola Recipe

Simple Nut Granola Recipe

A simple granola with mixed nuts and desiccated coconut.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course Breakfast
Servings 20 portions (around 50g each)

Ingredients
  

  • 110 g unsalted butter
  • 195 g syrup (we used a mixture of honey and golden syrup)
  • 200 g demerara sugar
  • 175 g oats
  • 170 g desiccated coconut
  • 100 g mixed seeds & flaked almonds (we used flaked almonds and pumpkin seeds)
  • 150 g Mixed nuts (we used walnuts, almonds and pistachios)
  • 1/2 Orange, zested (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat your oven to 150°C (130°C fan assisted) and line a couple of large baking trays with greaseproof paper.
  • In a medium sized pan, melt the butter with the sugar, syrup and zest. You want the butter to have melted and combined but you don’t want the mixture to boil.
  • Mix together all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
  • Pour the syrup and butter mixture over the dry ingredients, mixing well until all of the dry ingredients are coated.
  • Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking trays, making sure they’re well spread out and in one single layer on each tray.
  • Place the trays in the oven, baking for 10 minutes undisturbed.
  • Remove from the oven and turn the mixture in each tray. Return to the oven and keep checking every 5 minutes.
  • The granola will be done when the mixture has turned a golden brown colour. Be very careful not to overcook. It will likely still seem a bit soggy when you take it out, but it will crisp up as it cools.
  • Allow to cool completely in the trays and transfer to an air-tight container once cooled.
Keyword Granola

Christmas Morning Maple Cranberry Cinnamon Buns

What’s the best way to kick off Christmas morning? It definitely involves a brew, maybe a stocking and probably some form of bucks fizz. But if you want to kick it up a notch, why not serve up cinnamon buns for breakfast? Maple cranberry cinnamon buns sprinkled with chopped pistachios and drizzled with an orange glaze are the perfect way to make Christmas morning even more indulgent, especially as most of the hard work can be done the day before, so they’re ready to just stick in the oven first thing.

maple cranberry cinnamon buns

This is a combination of a couple of my older recipes, it takes the maple cranberries from my Christmas pancake recipe, and the overnight cinnamon buns I made last year, then it adds an orange wash, pistachios and a glaze. The cinnamon buns are delightfully light, especially when they’re fresh, perfect to pull apart. Arranged like a Christmas tree they’re also very visually impressive, ready for hungry and excited people to devour first thing in the morning.

Do you have any Christmas morning traditions?

Christmas cinnamon buns
Orange glazed cinnamon buns

Maple Cranberry Cinnamon Buns

Soft cinnamon buns filled with maple cranberries, drizzled with orange glaze and dusted with pistachios.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Overnight Proving 8 hours
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 12

Ingredients
  

For the Dough

  • 235 ml warm milk not hot
  • ½ tbsp fast acting dried yeast
  • 4 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 385 g + 2-4tbsp all-purpose flour divided
  • 1 large egg room temperature
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter melted
  • ½ tsp salt

For the filling

  • 90 g unsalted butter softened
  • 20 g granulated sugar
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 75 g fresh cranberries
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp water

For the toppings

  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp water
  • Zest of one orange
  • 150 g icing sugar
  • 1 tbsp orange juice
  • 20 g pistachios chopped

Instructions
 

  • In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle the yeast into the flour. Leave for a few minutes then whisk in 65g of the flour and 2tbsp sugar until combined. Cover with cling film and leave to rise at room temperature for 35-40minutes so it puffs up.
  • Whisk in the remaining sugar, egg, melted butter and salt.
  • Using a dough hook attachment, set to low and add in 320g of flour, 60g at a time, making sure the flour has incorporated well after each addition. Add flour a tablespoon at a time after this until the dough is no longer sticking to a fingertip. Set to knead for 10 minutes. It should be coming away from the sides of the bowl at the end.
  • Cover and allow to rise at room temperature for 2 hours (1 hour in an oven set to 35°C), until it’s doubled in size.
  • In a small saucepan heat the water with the cranberries for a few minutes until the water starts cooking off. Add the maple and cinnamon and cook over a low heat until it starts turning syrupy. 
  • Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out the dough into a 17″x10″ rectangle. Spread the softened butter over the top.
  • Whisk together the cinnamon and sugar, sprinkle the buttered dough generously all over. You’ll use all of it. Then, sprinkle over the prepared cranberries as evenly as you can.
  • Roll tightly, away from you along one of the long edges, to make a long a log.
  • Pinch the very ends together slightly, then cut them off to neaten. Divide into 12 even cinnamon rolls.
  • Place them cut side down in a prepared tin, spacing evenly to allow some space to rise, or else in a 2, 4, 3, 2, 1 formation to form a Christmas tree.
  • Cover with cling film and place in the fridge for at least 7 hours. Overnight is preferable.
  • Remove from the fridge an hour before you want to cook them so they can return to room temperature. They’ll be puffy.
  • Pre-heat the oven to 180°C(160°C fan assisted).
  • Remove the cling film, transfer to the center of the pre-heated oven and bake for 22-24 minutes, until the tops have gone golden.
  • While they are baking, combine the caster sugar in a small pan with the water and orange zest, whisking until the sugar has dissolved. Heat until it just starts to boil.
  • As soon as you’ve removed the cinnamon buns from the oven, brush them generously with the sugar syrup.
  • Leave to cool for a few more minutes before sprinkling with the pistachios.
  • Whisk the orange juice with the icing sugar until you’ve got a thick icing that should dribble off the whisk when lifted. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe over the buns in whatever pattern you desire.
  • Best served fresh.

Orange & Lemon Polenta Bundt Cake

Orange & Lemon Polenta Bundt

I turned 30 last week. I don’t really know how that happened, but I’m going to play along and claim that I’m OK with it, and that I’m not remotely having a miniature crisis of self. I celebrated with good friends, eating pizza at my favourite place in Walthamstow (long term readers and anyone that follows me on my instagram will know that that’s SoDo Pizza Cafe), before flying off for a week in Iceland with my girlfriend, Maddie. Iceland was an absolutely incredible trip, including the best cinnamon bun of my life, numerous mountains, black sand beaches, infinite waterfalls and the most metal church I’ve ever seen. I’ll probably get around to that trip properly at a later date, but it was something from that adventure which prompted me to crack out my new bundt tin; Skyr. It’s everywhere in Iceland and you can use it in the same way as yogurt for most things, but it’s a bit thicker with a slightly different flavour.
Read more

Courgette & Walnut Loaf (Vegan)

Vegan Courgette Loaf

The blog has taken a back seat since the turn of the year, and so has baking if I’m being honest. I’m not even going to apologise, I’ve just been busy and concentrating on other facets of my life. I’ve got a whole bunch of stuff planned in though, so do stick with me. First up is something we quickly put together after getting back from a long weekend in Bath. It was mid afternoon on a dreary Monday and we wanted something we could snack on in the evenings that would help satisfy a sweet craving without being too heavy. My girlfriend is also half way through a vegan month, so it had to be something dairy free. A while ago I tried making a courgette loaf that didn’t particularly hold up, but this one works much better.
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Brown Butter Cookies

Brown Butter Cookies

I’ve got an absolutely massive soft spot for cookies. You can probably tell from the number of cookie recipes I’ve done over the last few years since I started this blog. From your basic choc chip cookies through to caramel stuffed cookies or brownie crackle cookies. This does mean that I’m starting to reach a point where my core recipes are actually all fairly similar, but I just mix up the flavours and fillings. This one is slightly different though, and indulgent; Brown Butter Cookies. One of my favourite flavours of ice cream is London’s Chin Chin Lab’s ‘Burnt Butter Caramel’, which has its grounding in the same technique. Browning the butter gives it a more caramel-y edge, giving it hints of toffee. This makes it perfect to go with fillings like pecans, chocolate and salt.
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