Homemade Granola & Mixed Fruit Compote

Homemade Granola and Fruit Compote form part of the ‘Holy Trinity’ along with Natural Greek Yogurt that is my absolute favourite breakfast!!!

Over the years, I have bought different types of granola and have to be honest, you just cannot beat what you make at home yourself.  If you’re like me, you will have picked up various packs from supermarket shelves, trawled through the ingredient list and found that there was always something in the contents which you just didn’t like.  The beauty of course, in making your own is that this is never an issue – you can add in what you like and leave out what you don’t!!

The same goes for fruit compote.  We have a fruit and vegetable garden here at home and at this time of the year, all of the soft fruit is ripe and ready for the picking.  Trouble is, there are still some berries in my freezer from last year’s harvest.  Now I know that means they have been there a year but they are still perfect and rather than waste them, I like to make up my own fruit compote to have in the fridge.

If you don’t have your own fruit to use, then you can buy it fresh.  This works out quite expensive, and in my opinion, fresh fruit should be eaten as it comes rather than cooking it.  Your local supermarket will have bags of frozen mixed berries (I usually buy mine in Lidl but any large supermarket chain will have it) which are quit inexpensive.  There are lots of different recipes for compote to be found on-line and in cook books but this is the one I use although I vary the fruit in it, depending on what I have available.

It will last for a couple of weeks in your fridge, but to be honest mine never survives that long as if I’m not using it on my yogurt then I spoon it over fluffy american pancakes with maple syrup, Brioch French Toast or even a good vanilla Ice Cream…yummy!!

Homemade Granola
2 Cups Porridge Oats (I like to use Jumbo Oats)
½ Cup Sunflower Seeds
2 tablspns Sesame Seeds
½ Cup Hazelnuts (skinless)
¼ Cup Almonds (roughly chopped)
3 tablspns Vegetable Oil
3 tablspns Honey
½ Cup of Raisins
½ Cup of Dried Cranberries

Method:

1. Preheat your oven at 180oC, 350oF, Gas Mark 4
2. Place the hazelnuts on a baking tray and toast them for 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven.
3. In a bowl, mix the porridge oats, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, toasted hazelnuts and chopped almonds.
4. Pour the vegetable oil and the honey onto the dried ingredients and mix well until combined.  Spread onto the same baking tray used to toast the hazelnuts and toast for 20 minutes or until golden brown – I usually check mine every 5 minutes and give it a mix so that it all browns evenly.
5. As soon as you remove the tray from the oven, mix in the raisins and the cranberries.  Leave the granola to cool on the tray.  I usually store mine in an airtight Kilner jar in the Pantry Cupboard

Tip:

• If you use the same tablespoon to add in both the oil and the honey then use the spoon first to add the vegetable oil – this will leave a film behind on it making it easy for the honey to slide off

Mixed Fruit Compote
500g Mixed Frozen Berries (see Tip below)
125g Caster Sugar
1 teasp Vanilla Extract
1 Star Anise or 1 inch Cinnamon Stick (Optional)

Method:

1. Place Berries (halve strawberries if on the large side) in a saucepan along with the Sugar, Vanilla Extract and Star Anise/Cinnamon (if using).  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 8 minutes.
2. Allow to cool completely and then place everything in a resealable container and keep in your fridge until needed.

Tip:

• Use a mix of the following berried – Raspberries/Blackberries/Red Currants/Black Currants/Strawberries/Blueberries ((I sometimes mix fresh and frozen fruit together)