FALL GRANOLA

This is a slight tweak on my regular granola that I make (see the tups below for the alterations to make that one). This oil-free, sugar-free, and gluten-free - but it’s packed with delicious fall flavours. If you want a crispy delicious granola that you can eat every day guilt-free then look no fucking further!

Serves: A shit load. Seriously. I recommend around 1/2 cup heaped on top of a bowl of cut up fruit with a splash of your favourite milk-type-thing of choice.

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups rolled oats

1 cup dates

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp all spice

dash of cloves

1/2 cup raw cashews, chopped

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

1/2 cup dried apples, chopped

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut

1/2 cup tahini

1/4 - 1/2 cup water from soaked dated

DIRECTIONS:

First step - start boiling some water - then fire up the oven to 300 F. Grab two baking sheets and line them with parchment or silicon baking sheets.

Place your dates in a bowl and pour the hot water over them - this will help make ‘em smooth as fucking silk when blending later. Set that shit aside to soften while you do everything else.

Throw the oats into a big ass mixing bowl and dump all your spices on top. Toss with your hands and make sure that sweet-ass fall spice mix gets all over the oats. Now toss in everything else on the list except for the dates and tahini. Stir it all around so that it’s nice and mixed up. Make a little well in the middle of the mixture.

By now your dates should be nice and soft. Plot them into a food processor or high speed blender (I recommend the processor if you have one - easier to get the mixture out after). Splash in 1/4 cup of the water that the dates were soaking in and then add the tahini. Turn on your machine and it do its thing. Scrape down the sides and shit every now and then if it needs it. Add a little more of the date water if you think it’s too thick.

Once that stuff is nice and smooth and mixed up pour it into the well you made with the granola mixture. Take a big ass spatula and stir it around well to make sure that everything gets coated with that awesome mixture. Make sure to dig up around the bottom of the bowl to make sure that stuff gets mixed up too.

Once everything is combined toss it onto the two baking sheets and spread it out as thin as you can. Pop those babies into the oven for 15 minutes. Take ‘em out and with a spatula mix break it up (it’ll start to cook into a big chunk) and spread it all around. Bake another 15 minutes and take out and mix it up again. Let it cool on the baking sheets.

Store it in an air-tight container. It’ll keep fresh easily for two weeks, but if your family is anything like mine there’s no way this beautiful stuff is going to last that long.

Serve this anyway you want - throw it on your yogurt - put it on some ice cream. Personally I like to make a bowl of fruit salad and toss it onto that for breakfast. However you like it SMASH IT INTO YOUR MOUTH!

TIPS:

This is the fall version of this granola - but normally I’d use 1/2 cup of raisins instead of the dried apple, and I’d just use cinnamon instead of the pumpkin spice mix I’ve got above. I’d also normally use almonds instead of pecans.

You can swap out the dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and spices for whatever you prefer. I’m probably going to make a Christmas version of this in a few months with cocoa powder and mint extract - keep an eye out for that delicious shit!

---------

If you’re enjoying Former Fat Forker consider checking out our Patreon page to help to keep it free for everyone.