I will never buy supermarket granola again! After trying homemade granola with ingredients I choose, it’s unimaginable to think about buying industrial types full of hydrogenated oils, glucose syrup, sugars, saturated fats, and other low-quality ingredients. Although granola can potentially be healthy, in fact, the vegetable oils and butters chosen to help bind the ingredients or add flavor can generate excess calories! And all this at the expense of health! Making it at home instead would ensure a more genuine choice, attentive to reducing or eliminating added sugars and fats. Unlike commercial alternatives, where sugar or sweeteners are often among the first ingredients on the list, here instead, oats, spelt, nuts, and seeds would take precedence. In short, granola can be a nutritious and satisfying food, provided you make a good choice! And here is my proposal without added sugars, except for the natural ones from fruit, in this case, apple and banana reduced to puree! A concentration of virtues with important nutrients for a balanced and healthy diet! Perfect for a fit breakfast to enjoy with yogurt, fresh seasonal fruit, milk, or to enrich your porridge. Or as an afternoon snack to munch on even outside the house! Experts recommend a portion of about 40 grams per day, equivalent to about 4 tablespoons. This amount would allow you to enjoy its benefits without exceeding your daily calorie intake, especially for those following a controlled diet or trying to maintain their weight.
If you like to vary and are attentive to what you eat from the first meal of the day, try these fantastic alternatives:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 3 medium jars
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
⚠ THIS RECIPE CONTAINS ONE OR MORE AFFILIATE LINKS. The products I recommend are the same ones I use in my recipes; purchasing them through my blog helps support me and my work, while it does not cost you anything extra!
- 7 oz whole rolled oats
- 3.5 oz Spelt Flakes (unsweetened)
- 1 cup apple and banana puree (100% fruit)
- 2 tbsps flaxseed oil (or sesame)
- 3.5 oz mixed nuts (20 g per type, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, etc.)
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 oz 85% dark chocolate
Tools
- 1 Mixing bowl
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Knife
- 1 Baking sheet
- 1 Parchment paper
- 1 Spatula
Steps
Making homemade granola is very simple. In a large mixing bowl, combine and mix the whole rolled oats with the spelt flakes without sugars.
Separately, gather 3.5 oz of mixed nuts of your choice already shelled (I chose hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, almonds, and pistachios) and roughly chop them with a knife.
Add the chopped nuts to the cereal mix, also add the seeds (in my case flaxseeds, sesame, and sunflower seeds), and mix well.
Sweeten with the apple and banana puree. For convenience, I used the ready-made one, but you can blend the required amount of fruit in a blender until you achieve the same consistency.
Then flavor with the ground cinnamon and mix again.
Finish with the flaxseed oil and a pinch of salt and mix all ingredients with a spoon.
Transfer the mixture to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, compacting with a spoon to create a single layer. Place in a preheated fan oven at 340°F for 25′
After this time, gently stir with a spatula to turn it without crumbling too much, return to the oven still on fan, lowering the temperature to 320°F and continue baking for another 10′. Obviously, from oven to oven, as I often say, the timings can vary slightly so I always recommend checking often to avoid burning.
Then turn off and let it cool slowly in the oven with the door slightly open for a few minutes. Meanwhile, roughly chop the dark chocolate with a knife.
Once removed from the oven, add the chopped chocolate to the slightly warm granola and mix well one last time.
Let it cool completely before storing and keeping the granola inside a glass jar.
And voila… homemade granola without added sugars is ready to be enjoyed!
Bon Appetit from La Cucina di FeFè!
Storage
👉Homemade granola without added sugars keeps for about 3 weeks in an airtight container, preferably glass.
Tips, notes, variations, and suggestions
🟣The choice to sweeten only with fruit sugars, much healthier and attentive even for those who wish to follow a controlled diet, has one final downside: it may taste less sweet at first especially for palates accustomed to industrial flavors rich in refined sugars. My first advice is therefore to re-educate the palate, gradually accustoming it to less sweet tastes. As you enjoy this granola, you will see that you will no longer notice that initial unpleasant sensation of missing sugar and will instead increase the sensitivity to the natural sweetness of the ingredients, benefiting your health! But if you really can’t, the alternative is to add 1-2 tablespoons of honey at most to the mixture before baking it or add 1.5 oz of white chocolate chopped together with the dark chocolate once the granola is cooked. In addition to honey, other sweeteners that can be used are agave syrup, maple syrup, or barley and rice malt.
🟣One of the main advantages of homemade granola is the possibility to customize the recipe!
You can choose the combination of cereals, nuts, and seeds you prefer. Once ready, besides chocolate, you can further enrich the granola with dried fruit of your choice such as dates or dried apricots, but keep in mind that if you are following a restrictive diet, this will result in a higher intake in terms of sugars and calories.
