Spiced Apple Granola with Spelt

Spiced Apple Granola is an easy to make breakfast staple to have on standby in your kitchen. Sweetened mainly by fresh fruit this is a relatively healthy breakfast option that can be accessorised with various dried fruits for an additional treat when desired.

Can you handle a bit of daydreaming from me before I cut to the recipe today? Oh goodie. You see, I’d like to pretend that every day I sit down to breakfast in a beautiful conservatory or greenhouse chock full of fresh flowers & home-grown produce. Naturally, the light is soft and diffused and every morning I take my time over breakfast, maybe read a little or have a proper conversation with whoever else is with me.

That scene is just what I hope my images today convey.

The shattering reality is that my breakfast is always on the hoof. I’m ashamed to admit that I’m often standing up for breakfast and I squeeze it in between packing various lunchboxes, unloading the clean pots from the dishwasher and clearing the dirty pots. Oh, and of course the overhead lights are on for most of the year. It’s the opposite of glamorous, but a girl can dream, right?

One thing that remains the same regardless of the breakfast situation I find myself in is my desire to eat lightly but healthily. Healthy cereals, oats and granola often feature, so I’m pleased to be introducing this Spiced Apple Granola. It’s my latest breakfast crush.

When I created the recipe for this Apple Granola I really wanted to downplay the sugar and let the fruit do the talking. In fact, each batch contains just two tablespoons of syrup alongside two apples. The result is a subtle sweetness and a gentle apple flavour.

I also wanted to add a bit of extra interest to the mix by swapping a few of the oats for spelt flakes. Spelt offers a boost to texture and a divine nuttiness to the granola flavour, along with a healthy burst of fibre and protein. That’s a triple whammy in my view.

I can never resist making a few additions to simple flavours such as apple, and this time I sprinkled some coconut, almond flakes and spice into the mixing bowl to pep up the flavour profile of this Apple Granola – masala spice, straight cinnamon or pumpkin spice all partner well with the apples and spelt.

Somehow, I have resisted my natural urge to liberally pepper this granola with dried fruit. I adore dried fruit, but my aim was to keep this Spiced Apple Granola relatively low in added sugar, so I left it out. I rather like the idea of serving the fruit separately on days when I don’t mind a little extra sweetness in my breakfast rather than committing the whole batch to dried fruit.

You are, of course, free to add dried fruit to this base granola recipe as you see fit – raisins, dates and apricots all compliment the flavours well.

Once made this Apple Granola keeps well for several weeks. It is ideal served with milk or yoghurt and partners well with fresh fruit – such as apple slices or perhaps some blueberries or blackberries.

I’ve just realised that I’ve stacked up quite a few granola recipes over the years:

• Chocolate Orange Granola
• Coconut & Mango Granola
• Raspberry Granola
• Black Forest Granola
• Marmalade, Ginger & Cranberry Granola

And there are more to come – at least one of which is decidedly unhealthy but utterly delicious.

That’s all. If you want me, you can find me in my imaginary conservatory eating lunch and dreaming up more recipes.

Spiced Apple Granola with Spelt

Jane Saunders

Spiced Apple Granola is an easy to make breakfast staple to have on standby in your kitchen. Sweetened mainly by fresh fruit this is a relatively healthy breakfast option that can be accessorised with various dried fruits for an additional treat when desired.Find my recipes for Chai Spice or Pumpkin Spice

5 from 2 votes

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Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: Worldwide

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings: 6

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Ingredients

• ▢ 125 g/ 1 ½ cups/ 4 ½ oz Jumbo Oats
• ▢ 50 g/ ½ cup/ 2 oz Spelt flakes
• ▢ 3 tablespoon Coconut oil
• ▢ 2 tablespoon Maple syrup
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Almond extract
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
• ▢ 3 tsp Chai spice/ pumpkin spice or 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢ 2 Apples (red, tart) I used Pink Lady
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Chia seeds
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Dessicated coconut
• ▢ 2 tablespoon Flaked almonds (slivered)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 160C/ 310F and line a sided baking tray with baking parchment 
• Weight the oats & spelt flakes into a medium mixing bowl. Add the spice and chia seeds, then stir briefly
• Grate the apples coarsely (leave the skin on), stopping when you reach the core. Add to the dry ingredients and mix in
• Melt the coconut oil and syrup in a small pan. Stir in the almond and vanilla extracts and pour into the dry ingredients.  Mix well and spread the granola out onto the baking sheet
• Bake for 15 minutes then stir and turn. Return to the oven and cook for a further 15 minutes
• Turn the heat down to 150C/ 300F. Stir and turn the granola again and cook for another 15 minutes
• If the granola is crisp and dry, remove from the oven. If it is still a little soggy continue to cook the granola taking care to stir and turn the granola every 5 minutes until it has dried out (it can burn easily at this point so needs to be checked more frequently)
• Once cooked, sprinkle the flaked almonds and coconut over and let cool completely before decanting into an airtight jar
• Keeps for up to 6 weeks

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