Showing posts with label little hadham stores. Show all posts
Showing posts with label little hadham stores. Show all posts

Mexican Feast


We have some new products on our Zero Waste Shelves; Black Eyed Peas, Black Turtle Beans, Pastilla and Jalapeno Dried Chilli Flakes and to accompany these I've also started to stock Blue Corn Tortilla Chips.  In combination these are great ingredients to put together a Summertime Mexican Feast; with fresh tomato salsa, guacamole and chilli, quesadillas or tacos.  

To help, I've listed a few recipes below, and I'd also recommend taking a look at the food in our Spanish Summer Selection to accompany your meal. There are some recipes HERE that I put together for the Spanish Summer that would work well with the recipse below.  In fact, you can simply substitute the black turtle beans in the Summer Salad with Butterbeans and a sprinkle of Dried pasilla Chilli flakes for a great Mexican salad.

I like to add some chorizo to my chilli. Along with slow cooking stewing beef and then shredding it, rather than using mince.



Salsa

Ingredients:

2-4 ripe tomatoes

½  red onion

1 fresh red pepper, stems, ribs, and seeds removed

1 lime

1 bunch of fresh coriander

1 tsp Pastilla or Jalapeno Dried Chilli Flakes  (more or less to taste)

1 pinch dried oregano

1 pinch sweet smoked paprika 

Salt and pepper to taste


Dice your tomatoes, onion, pepper, add the juice of the lime and mix together in a bowl.  Chop fresh coriander and mix in with diced ingredients. Add salt, pepper, dried oregano and chilli flakes to taste.  Serve with Blue Corn Tortilla Chips.  





Guacamole


Ingredients:


½  red onion

1-2 fresh red chillies

3 ripe avocados

1 ripe tomatoes

1 lime

        1 bunch of fresh coriander

1 tsp Pastilla or Jalapeno Dried Chilli Flakes  (more or less to taste)

        1 pinch dried oregano

        Salt and pepper to taste


Dice your onion, chilli peppers, tomato and avocado add the juice of the lime and mix together in a bowl.  Chop fresh coriander and mix in with diced ingredients. Add salt, pepper, dried oregano and chilli flakes to taste.  Serve with Blue Corn Tortilla Chips.  



Chilli


Ingredients:

100g Red Kidney Beans

100g Black Eyed Peas, 

100g Black Turtle Beans,

1 large onion

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp oil

1 heaped tsp hot chilli powder (or 1 level tbsp if you prefer mild)

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

400g can chopped tomatoes

½ tsp dried marjoram

4 squares dark chocolate

1tsp Pastilla or Jalapeno Dried Chilli Flakes (more or less to taste)

A good glug of bourbon, American whisky or brandy.


OPTIONAL - 500g of beef mince, soya mince or whatever your choice.



1.  The night before soak the kidney beans, black turtle beans

and black eyed peas or chickpeas.  Put them in a large saucepan in clean water and bring to the boil, then simmer for 40 minutes. 


2.  Fry off the onion in the oil and then turn the heat down low while you chop the peppers.  Turn up the heat a little in the pan add these to along with the crushed garlic.  


3.  Add the tin of tomatoes along with the chilli, paprika, cumin, dried marjorm, chilli flakes, chocolate and a glug of bourbon.


4.  If you are going to add meat cook off 500g of your choice of meat with salt, pepper, 1tsp of cinnamon and a ½ tsp chilli powder.


5.  Add the beans, tomato sauce mix and your choice of meat together into a pan and continue to slow cook this for at least 60 minutes.


Serve with, rice, soured cream and chives, tortilla chips and or cheese.


0

Sustainability 2 - On becoming a Grocer

little hadham stores

I am working on a new website and as a result have to work on an "About Me" section. On the one hand, I find this difficult. Just as I find the photoshoot I needed to do DIFFICULT, despite the best efforts of the lovely Natalie Aubry.

On the other hand, it is a great exercise in thinking about, and defining once again, what I really want to do with this business/STORES/my life...

I never intended to be a shop keeper, but I believe strongly that we need to make conscious, sustainable, choices about how we consume.  I believe that food is a great way for people to start to think about many of today's environmental issues on a personal level. And, that it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the, often conflicting, environmental advice.

little hadham stores village grocers

I try to look at things holistically, aiming to tread as lightly on the planet as possible, without compromising quality, or beauty, or the need for us to share our creativity and knowledge with the widest community we can. When I choose goods and suppliers I always work to the simple principle:

"BUY LESS, CHOOSE WELL"


Anything else is an attempt to cut corners and it will end up biting you on the butt in the long run. It seems to me that one of the biggest problems with the food industry is that in it's continued attempts to create cheap food it has created the problems of industrialised agriculture. The constant downward pressure on price is what leads to; inhumane farming practices, lack of respect for animals, land and consumers, toxic chemicals being used on the soil, a disconnect from the earth itself. And we, the consumer, are often complicit in this.

I try to bring my customers the freshest food available, with a minimum of food miles and food waste. I support local, like-minded, business, small producers who make an ethical choice about how goods should be produced, sold, packaged and consumed. Not only is this great for our community, but we all get to eat seasonally and sustainably.

I also want to choose from artisan makers and the best quality producers worldwide, to support traditional, sustainable production practices and nutritionally valuable and great tasting food.

dog at shop door

SUSTAINABILITY IS AT OUR VERY CORE : -

  • Organic first is our motto; and reducing the toxicity of my environment, and the food I eat, is a life long journey. We supply weekly organic veg boxes, organic artisan bread, organic whole foods from our zero waste shelves (anything NOT organic is listed as such).

  • Reducing consumption is an aim in itself, but specifically of animal products is environmentally important. We stock vegetarian and vegan alternatives as the norm, rather than the alternative. However, I believe in nose to tail eating and believe the emphasis should be on making sure there are high welfare levels and no waste when we do consume other animals.

  • Minimise packaging. It should be compostable, recyclable or re-useable. Bring your own bags, boxes, tubs, jars, any container and we'll fill them from our shelves. Return your veg boxes, egg cartons, glass and plastic containers and paper bags and we will re-use them or compost them.

  • Cut single use plastics. Plastic is an amazing product in some circumstances but OUR use of it is killing the planet, and WE can do something about that. It’s not that we never use plastic, but we believe we can re-duce, re-use & re-cycle the minimal amount that we do use.

  • Sustainable palm oil - the West's rampant consumption of this is what drives countries to destroy their rain forests, yet like any other crop it can be sustainably grown.

  • I believe in a co-operative approach and work WITH my local suppliers. My main wholesaler is the UK’s biggest worker’s co-operative; who have been supplying natural, responsibly-sourced products since 1977. They have ethical policies on the environment, trade, palm oil, workers rights, animal welfare, toxic ingredients, and regularly review their supply chain.


It has been an iterative process, finding my way to define this approach. And it will continue to develop.

Despite my local prejudice, I find myself wanting to stock my favourite foods from overseas. I have been brought up eating West Indian food, I can't suddenly turn off that need for spice and sunshine. I am starting to stock more lifestyle products, natural materials, traditionally made, often vintage and I'm not sure if this is pushing me away from the original plan for the shop.

Anyway, I had to fill in the census form last weekend and I am now officially a grocer, so there I am. Come on in, I love to talk!



0

Bread Matters



We have wonderful bread in Little Hadham Stores. Fiona's Organic Irish soda bread is simply amazing. Made fresh the morning you pick it up with certified organic ingredients, apart from those locally foraged. The plain soda bread is deliciously hearty, can be made vegan at no extra cost and is the basis for 16 different speciality breads she makes.  This week Fiona is offering a taster of her bread for every customer who orders from her, so it's the perfect week to try it. 


Matt at Jigsaw Bakery is an absolute genius baker and I challenge you to find better sourdough anywhere.  I've tried a few others and I stick my neck out and say his is the best.  And that is why I drive to Linton, Cambridge every Thursday morning, it's why the shop doesn't open until 11am.



Over the first lockdown I returned to making my own bread and reading my favourite book on bread (Yes, I have one!) Andrew Whitley's Bread Matters.  It reminded me again of why a thoughtful approach to the food we eat is so important.  

Andrew Whitley is the founder of the celebrated Village Bakery in Melmerby.  An organic baker he writes of the deplorable state of British bread, explains the baking process, demystifies the science and shares the practical craft of bread making.

I've been avoiding processed bread from supermarkets for over 20 years now, and can hardly eat the stuff these days, though my children - LOVE IT - when they go to someone else house, they act like it is some kind of miracle food.  

Bread Matters reminds me to think about the whole process of making a food; not just how the wheat is grown - organically or not?, But also the source of the bread flour, how it is milled, the process under which it is made into bread and the additives that are put into it before baking. 

Particularly interesting is that the long fermentation times that used to be the norm, before modern yeasts were isolated - along with the increased instances of wheat intolerance, and coeliacs - have implications for gut health and wheat intolerances.









0

Sustainability 1 - Zero Waste Shops

sugar and scoop

As I am sure you know sustainability is hugely important to me.  The Christmas break and new year always gives me the opportunity, and head space, to think about what sustainability really means and what my goals for the new year are.  Looking back at my blog I find this post from the beginning of last year; A New Year but No New Planet. I found myself liking this quote:

I think a good start is to focus on the many, small changes that are compatible, and therefore sustainable, in our own lives.  It is all about our individual priorities and making active choices, even if the science tells us next year they were wrong.  Conscious choices lead to meaningful action.

It made me realise I wanted to do a series of posts on other people's thoughts on sustainability and maybe introduce you to some local, ethical and sustainable businesses.  So, I am starting with Sugar and Scoop a zero waste shop in Ware.  

Reducing plastic waste is crucial to the future of our planet. That’s why Sugar and Scoop sell fantastic, high-quality products that help you to cut down on the single-use plastics you get through in daily life.

Kirsty Taylor-Moran set up Sugar and Scoop with a crowd funding campaign, gaining support of her future customers in Ware to help establish the business.  I asked her to tell me more:

We were motivated to set up Sugar & Scoop after becoming increasingly concerned about climate change and the government inaction. We realised recycling, where possible, was not enough and started to make meaningful changes at home to reduce our impact on the environment. 

Food packaging, cleaning, toiletries and baby hygiene products were obvious areas for us to target. We were trying to do our best to reduce our single use plastic waste but found it really wasn’t very easy for us to do without travelling miles, at the time our nearest ZW store was in St Albans and was logistically difficult for us. 


zero waste shop


Kirsty's shop is beautiful and she believes that reducing your plastic waste shouldn’t mean compromising on choice or quality.  Kirsty seeks out the best quality plastic-free products so that you can buy them locally.  If there’s something new you’d like to see in her store, just let her know and she'll try to source it.

Sugar and Scoop offers refills of food, toiletries and cleaning supplies along with treats like her nut-butter station.  Kirsty says:

We feel very strongly that everybody should have a refill shop in their town and we wanted to help others in our local community reduce their household waste too but with a real focus on convenience, accessibility and offering a broad enough range of products to make it feasible to skip the big supermarket shops.

sugar and scoop



Sugar & Scoop 
Zero Waste Refill & Eco Lifestyle Shop
76 - 78 High Street,
Ware, SG12 9AT

Email - Hello@sugarandscoop.com
Instagram - @sugarandscoop


0

How was your January?



Minor Figures oat milk

I try not to commit to those new year resolutions that only last for January, and often can't decide how I feel about things like "Dry January" or "Veganuary", is it anything more than a marketing ploy? 

 I asked one of my favourite vegans, Tom, 17, what influenced his decision to become vegan:

When discussing why I first went vegan, I found that people always seemed to find it “too difficult” or “confusing” or need an overwhelming reason to be a vegan out of obligation. While I do understand the reason people may perceive veganism like that, and while I do believe that people have a moral obligation to go vegan, I won’t get into those things now. I’m here to talk about why I went vegan.

The reason, unlike what many would think, was simple. I like animals. I don’t want to hurt them. And once I had found out that contributing to the dairy and egg industry was doing just that (I was already vegetarian at the time for a similar reason) I felt the weight of my actions and just… Stopped (Sorry, this is a remarkably uninteresting case. Go watch Gary Yourofsky’s* speech if you want a more in depth look into the vegan mindset, he explains it pretty well)
Tom is one of the reasons I decided to stock these Suma Organic Baked Beans which are Vegan Society approved.



In STORES we always have a wide range of vegan foods, purely because we should eat a diverse range of plant based foods to make up any healthy diet.  However I do have some favourite vegan finds:

My addiction to coffee has lead me to try a number of different dairy alternatives and Minor Figures Organic Oat Milk is my favourite so far.  Oat Milk has proven to be one of the most sustainable and eco-friendly plant milks. Production of Oat Milk demands less water usage than that of cow’s milk and most alternative milks. Don't get me started on Almond Milk my friends, having spent many years in California, I am biased against it on exactly the basis of it's water consumption.

Many factors contribute to a smaller carbon footprint when compared plant milk and cow’s milk. A single cup of coffee using cow’s milk has roughly double the CO2e than a cup of coffee with a dairy free alternative like oat milk. Or of course you can drink your coffee black.

To be honest, I still have milk in my morning coffee and then often drink it black for the rest of the day or with oat milk.  I find that I use Oat Milk for all my other breakfast foods, smoothies, porridge, granola & cereal and actually I can tolerate it in tea, while my husband can't abide oat milk in tea but finds it perfectly fine in coffee.

Finding ethical swaps that fit into your life is often a work in progress, and persisting until you find what works for you is what is important.  You don't have to be perfect.  Just start the process of considering what is best for not just you, but the planet and your community as a whole, it is not something for a single month, but is an ongoing and ever evolving commitment.




0

A well stocked Larder



kilner jars dried goods

Establishing LHStores dried goods section for customers to "Weigh & Take Away" in their own containers meant I had to really think about what a well stocked larder looked like. 



My dried goods are all stored in 3L Kilner jars with clip top lids.  Set up took a while, washing, drying and filling each jar, but they look beautiful, I can see what I have at a glance and they keep the food fresh and safe from cross contamination.

In order to cook good, wholesome, food for your family every day, you need a well-stocked larder full of good-quality essentials.  So, I made a list, there have been several iterations, a fair bit of asking friends and family what they'd call “essentials", and I thought after that much work I should share it.

Dried goods
Dried Goods:
Rice
  • I choose organic basmati, brown wholegrain rice, full of fibre and slow-release energy,  and organic white basmati, for when brown just seems wrong, (in a jambalaya for example), an organic arborio rice (for risotto) and an organic red and black rice for salads, or to mixing with the other rices for colour and interest.
Lentils
  • Organic puy lentils and orange lentils. Great with slow fried onion as a substantial side dish, as a Dahl or thrown into soups and stews.
Quinoa
  • Great source of protein, a base for salad, a side dish, or thrown into soups and stews.
Corn Couscous or Polenta
  • Ours is a rougher grain than the classic polenta, but is just as good boiled in salted water.  As it thickens, and just before you take it off the heat, stir in cheese (a soft blue cheese is especially luxurious) for a simple, hearty Italian supper.  Tastes good with ratatouille too.
Wholegrain Couscous
  • Full of protein couscous is a beautiful accompaniment to a tagine, or stew, and makes the perfect base for a salad.  Add cinnamon, Z’atar, chopped dried apricots, preserved lemon & almonds for a North African flavour.
Chickpeas
  • Yes it’s good to soak them, but don’t let that put you off using this wonderfully versatile pulse in your stews, salads and in that tagine you are making.
Buckwheat - Unroasted
  • A new one for me, and not easy to find this organic.  Use it as you would cous cous,  for slightly denser, nuttier flavour.  Great in salads and with roasted veggies.
Beans
  • Kidney beans are obviously great in a chilli, refried beans or in rice with a curried goat or chicken. I love these and although, again, they should be soaked, it doesn't take as long as you might think to cook them.  I also like to have berlotti, butter and canalleni beans in my larder. 
Porridge oats
  • Perfect for a filling breakfast, porridge in the winter, granola, muesli or bircher in the summer. We sell a granola kit with our oats, seeds, nuts and dried fruit measured out for you.
Pasta
  • I’ve simply not found organic, or the quality I want for my “Weigh & Take Away” service.  So, I am selling it bagged from Bio Idea; penne, macaronni, spaghetti & wholemeal tagliteli.
Grains (bulgur wheat, pearl barley, split peas)
  • Great and relatively cheap bulkers for stews and soups. Cook a larger batch than you need and turn into delicious salads, warm or cooled.
Nuts and seeds*
  • So far I have gone for pumpkin and sunflower seeds and an Omega Seeds Mix.  Almonds and cashews are the only nuts I have, but I am thinking I need to add hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts and peanuts. Great for snacking or toasting and sprinkling over salads, soups and stews, or onto yoghurt. Or mixing with some of our other dried goods to make your own museli.
Dried Fruit
  • I have organic dried apricots, raisins, cranberries and mango.  Great for snacking or that personalised museli I keep talking about.

Tins & Packets:
Whole & finely chopped tomatoes and passata
  • Essential for sauces, soups, stews, casseroles - we all agreed on the use of ESSENTIAL for this one!
Coconut milk, oil & water
  • Coconut water for our smoothies, and in the summer as a refreshing addition to juice it quenches your thirst like nothing else. Add coconut milk and oil to soups and curries for a mellow, creamy flavour - in my house these are essentials.
Good-quality tinned fish; tuna, sardines, anchovies
  • Great for simple pasta dishes, pizza, on toast for supper and as fishcakes. And anchovies are the perfect salty seasoning for sauces and stews. _ I hope to have 
Tea & Coffee
  • Good quality loose leaf tea is not always easy to find and coffee beans store better and a fresh ground coffee is worth the extra expense for your favourite cuppa.
Good-quality stock
  • The flavour base to loads of different dishes.
Plain flour, self-raising flour (wholemeal or white), bread flour
  • For thickening sauces, coating meat, fish and veggies for frying, and baking
Jars & Bottles:
Rapeseed oil
  • Good flavourless oil, with a high burn temperature for everyday cooking. Ours is grown and bottled locally in Sawbridgeworth and we will refill your empty bottle at a discount.
Olive oil
  • We have a lovely organic Italian oil from Suma.
Mustard
  • Add a bit of a kick to stews, sauces and marinades, or use as a condiment.
  • Tip: a tablespoon of grainy mustard and a tablespoon of honey make a great coating when roasting sausages.
Soy sauce
  • Seasoning for Asian dishes, marinades and sauces.
Vinegars (red wine, cider, balsamic)  
  • Lots of dishes benefit from a little vinegar – think dressings, marinades, sauces and stews.
Olives 
  • Again a bit of debate about these as an essential, but in our house they are.  A great snack, with cheese, on pizza, in pasta dishes add to salads.  Sometimes we just eat them out of the jar.  
Honey
  • Our honey is from local bee keepers in Wareside. Add a touch of sweetness to your life knowing that you are supporting local bee keepers.
Good-to-haves (extras but not essentials)
  • Capers
  • Tomato purée
  • Dried yeast
  • Cocoa powder
  • Sugar (golden and brown)
  • Maple syrup
  • Baking powder
  • Your favourite condiments (ketchup, brown sauce, mayonnaise, Tabasco – I have to admit we love em all)

And then of course there are your herbs & spices.  We have bundles of fresh garden herbs available in the Summer and have just started to stock dried herbs and spices.  But it's a whole new list, and so far it's as follows (please feel free to let me know if I've missed something)

Herbs & spices
Oregano
Smoked paprika
Chilli
Cinnamon
Cumin
Coriander
Curry powder
Five-spice
Sea salt
Black peppercorns
Tumeric
Garam Masala
Ground Ginger
Fennel Seeds
Z'atar spice mix
Sumac

So, what have I missed?  LHSTORES can provide you with most of these items for your larder, where we can't, you know that it is on my list to source and find the best quality version I can.


*Our dried nuts are kept completely separate from our other dried goods to prevent cross contamination.  As is our Omega seed mix, that includes sesame seeds.  I will be weighing all items in the shop to prevent cross contamination, that could have consequences for allergy sufferers.
2

Wet (Green) Garlic


wet green garlic








Old gardening wisdom says that you should plant garlic on the shortest day and harvest it on the longest. So, I have an abundance of wet garlic to sell in STORES at the moment. Wet, or green, garlic is freshly harvested garlic that hasn't been hung up to dry. It's milder in taste and less pungent in odour than the usual kind and so can be sliced straight into salads.

To be honest, I'm a bit of a garlic fanatic and will eat it raw anyway. I love to crush garlic into my vinaigrette and slaver my greens in it.


In the garden my garlic and onion bed this year makes me really happy.  Not only have I got good sized onions and loads of garlic, but I've allowed the poppies to grow as weeds between the alliums and it looks gorgeous.

For thousands of years diverse cultures have believed garlic to have beneficial medicinal properties, modern science seems to be confirming this. Scientist believe that most of garlic's health benefits are caused by the sulphur compounds formed when a garlic clove is chopped, crushed or chewed. The best known of these is allicin, however this is an unstable compound only briefly present in fresh garlic after it has been cut.

wet green garlic


Six Health Benefits of Garlic.

1.  Low in calories and rich in vitamin C, vitamin B6, manganese, selenium and decent amounts of calcium, copper, potassium, phosphorus, iron and vitamin B1

2.  Garlic has long been believed to help prevent and fight the common cold and flu.  Trials using garlic supplements suggest garlic boosts the function of the immune system and seem to support this.

3.  High doses of garlic appear to improve blood pressure for those with known hypertension. In some instances supplements may be as effective as regular medications.

4.  Garlic contains antioxidants that protect against cell damage and so it is believed has beneficial effects on Alzheimers, dementia and other chronic diseases.

5.  It appears garlic may have some benefits for bone health by increasing estrogen levels in females.

6.  Garlic supplements appear to reduce total and LDL cholesterol in those have high cholesterol. HDL cholesterol and triglycerides do not seem to be affected.


0

The Perfect Granola

Granola recipe

We don't really do cereal in our house*.  I like breakfast to have more protein and less sugar and additives than your typical store bought cereal contains.  We have hens so lots of our breakfast are using fresh eggs, otherwise our typical brekkie is porridge, with all kinds of stuff mixed in, added as toppings or even on the side.  The present favourite involves bananas, brown sugar and cocoa nibs.  However, everyone needs a break now and then at which point we like to repurpose our oats into muesli and, the kids favourite, granola.

I always thought of granola as fancy American muesli, until my son Louis got really into it and I bought the stuff a couple of times from the supermarket.  Only to realise that what it is is, EXPENSIVE posh museli.  And I am sick to death of buying a box only to get it home and find it's only half full and barely enough for one breakfast.  So, I started making it myself, which is really not so onerous and at least that way we get to have exactly what we like in it.

I've tried a fair few recipes and now have a pretty clear idea of the "dried stuff to sticky stuff ratio", - I think this is the key to good granola.  Well that and salt!  So, take a look at the recipe below, but explore using your own favourite seeds, nuts, grains and dried fruits and let me know how you do. 

how to make granola

Ingredients:
(makes 1 large Kilner jar)

40g coconut oil
150g Maple syrup - approx (120ml) or use honey, golden syrup, agave etc
a good pinch of sea salt

340g Grain - at least half is usually oats, but use the grain, or grains, of your choice, buckwheat, spelt, barley or rye flakes for example
200g mixed nuts, roughly chopped
50 - 100g mixed seeds, I use pumpkin, linseeds and sunflower seeds regularly in mine

1 large egg white, beaten

80-100g mixed chopped dried apricots, dates or dried fruit of your choice

Heat your oven to about 120 degrees and line a baking sheet with grease proof paper.
I've deliberately separated out the ingredients above as I think you need these basic proportions, but you can substitute whatever grains, nuts, seeds and dried fruit you prefer. 
how to make granola
The coconut oil, maple syrup and salt is the "sticky stuff" I was on about.  Combine them in a saucepan over a low heat, then remove from the heat and allow them to cool down while you put the dry ingredients, except the dried fruit, in a large bowl.
The 200 - 300g of nuts and seeds are entirely your own choice.  I like almonds and cashews, and use pumpkin seeds, linseeds and sunflower seeds regularly in mine.
Whip your egg white in a separate bowl until frothy.  The egg is supposed to make the mixture more crunchy, and I also like the addition of a bit more protein.
Then pour your cooled coconut oil, maple syrup mixture into the bowl of dried ingredients, mix well.  Add the egg white and mix well again.
Pour this mixture onto the baking sheet and press down a little, bake it for approximately 30 - 35 minutes, taking it out at least once to give it a bit of a stir, to make sure it is baked evenly.  Break up the mixture as much, or as little, as is your preference.  Don't over bake it; if your oven runs a little on the hot side, use a lower temperature and cook for longer.
While it's baking chop up the dried fruit - I use dried apricots, dates, figs and cranberries.  The reason you don't add this to the ingredients you are baking is that a bit of the fruit always seems to catch and burn.  There's nothing worse than a little burnt, sour bit of fruit in your granola.  It didn't occur to me until quite recently that the way round this is just don't add it until the end.
So after 30 minutes take your golden granola out of the oven, leave it to cool and then mix in the dried fruit.  Eat straight away and/ or store in an airtight tin or Kilner jar to get the most out of your efforts.  Not that mine has ever had to last fo r longer than a week; it gets poured over yoghurt and scoffed within a day or two.

granola recipe

*The one concession is to the Doves Farm Gluten Free Chocolate Stars.

0
Back to Top