Using my same granola recipe, I have created a way to cook it using a much lower heat, thereby preserving more vitamins and nutrients from the manuka honey.
Recipe using low heat:
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1 1/2 cups (2 oz ) nut and/or seeds of your choice. I usually combine 2-4 nuts and seeds: chopped almonds,pumpkin seeds, ground flax seeds, chopped cashews, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and pistachios are my favorites
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 5 TB fat (olive oil, grass fed butter or coconut oil)
- 5 TB manuka honey
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- optional: 2 oz dried fruit of choice (about 1/2 cup). I used dried raspberries and shredded coconut in the batch pictured
*please use organic ingredients, if possible. Be wary of processed honey. Make sure to buy raw honey.
- Turn oven to 150 or 200 degrees.
- Combine oats and salt in a large cast iron pan or any large baking dish (a glass 9×13 will work). Toast oats and salt on the stove top over medium low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat after toasting.
- While the oats are toasting, melt the fat over very low heat. Once melted, take off the heat and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Add the manuka honey (or maple syrup) and vanilla extract. Lightly stir together.
- Pour the fat and honey mixture over the oats and combine using your hands (it is the easiest way to evenly distribute the honey, since it wasn’t completely melted).
- Bake at 150 degrees for 2 hours, stirring halfway through cooking. Or bake at 200 degrees for 1 hr and 15 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking.
- Remove the dish from the oven and stir the granola around using a wooden spoon or a spatula. Stir every 10 minutes until the granola reaches room temperature. Stir in the dried fruit.
- Store in mason jars (or any air tight container of choice) in the refrigerator or freezer.
