Written by Annalisa

* 450g porridge oats (rolled oats)
* 120g sunflower seeds
* 120g sesame seeds
* 175g apple compote or apple sauce
* 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
* 120g golden syrup
* 4 tablespoons of honey (I use manuka)
* 100g light brown sugar (I use half of this but you can very probably get away with leaving it out all together although haven’t tried that yet)
* 250g whole almonds (not blanched)
* 1 teaspoon Maldon sea salt
* 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
* 300g raisins

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s Feast and she got it from Andy Fairfield from The Pantry in Fairfield, Conneticut. It is really tasty and would make a really great, original foodie-present!

You basically just mix everything together and bake it. Nigella/Andy’s recipe says to add the raisins after you’ve cooked it but the first time I made it I put the raisins in from the beginning and cooking them actually made them slightly chewy which I loved so up to you.

Once everything is mixed together you spread mixture out on two baking trays and cook at 170C/GM 3 for about 40 mins. Set the timer for 20 mins and turn half way through. The idea is to toast the granola so it’s golden brown.

When completely cool, store in an airtight jar.

No reason why you couldn’t add other nuts or play around a bit with the recipe. Don’t be tempted to leave out the honey or golden syrup - it’s what really makes it and you need something to bind it all together and make it caramelise slightly. I guess you could experiment with using just honey and not golden syrup but this is so packed full of good things I think you can allow yourself a bit of naughty golden syrup.

Nigella says to use brown rice syrup or rice malt syrup rather than golden syrup but I’ve never found it.

YUM YUM.