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Tag: hazelnut

March 24, 2025

Maple, Hazelnut, Almond, and Cranberry Granola

This is the granola recipe of all granola recipes, swearsies realsies. It has beautiful crunchy clusters. It has the perfect selection and ratio of nuts and dried fruit to oats. It has a lovely maple-y depth. And, maybe most importantly, it is also seed-free. Good, satisfying granola should by no means be health food. If you want healthy, go and have some raw oats with fruit. This is not that. However, this granola is immensely satisfying, in a pat-on-the-back, treat-yourself sort of way, which is exactly where I want a granola to be. 

Maple, Hazelnut, Almond, and Cranberry Granola

Adapted from here

Makes about 3 Litres

This granola clumps beautifully, which is largely due to the addition of honey, which, with its ultra-high concentration of sugars to water, acts as a glue. This cannot be achieved with maple syrup alone (I’ve tried). Not stirring the granola during the baking process helps in the chonky clump-formation, too.

I like to add my cranberries right at the beginning, as opposed to at the end, as I enjoy a cranberry with a nice chew to it. If you are someone who prefers them on the softer side, add them at the 15-minute mark.

1 Tbsp relatively neutral vegetable oil – I have a small bottle of walnut oil kicking around that I like to use for this

125 ml maple syrup

2 Tbsp honey – if not runny, warm in a small pan before adding to mix

1 tsp vanilla essence

300g porridge oats

150g roughly chopped hazelnuts

100g slivered almonds

100g dried cranberries, roughly chopped

50g desiccated coconut

A good pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 150°C and line two baking trays with baking paper. Mix the oil, maple syrup, honey, and vanilla in a large bowl. 

Add all the remaining ingredients and mix well. Scoop onto the two baking sheets and spread out evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes without stirring, checking at the 15-minute mark to see how things are doing. Once golden brown, remove from the oven and cool. 

Now, because you haven’t stirred the mixture, you will be blessed with giant shards of granola. It is now up to you how large or how small you’d like the pieces to be – so transfer or crumble them into one 2L and one 1L glass jar. Enjoy however you like. 

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November 3, 2012

Dukkah

Crunchy.  I love crunchy. I’m pretty sure you do, too. I want lots of crunch. Crunch makes me happy. Do you know dukkah? This dry Egyptian mix of nuts and spices, where you first dunk a piece of bread into olive oil, then into the nut mixture, then eat? Yeah? It makes me happy. Especially because of the hazelnuts. Anything with hazelnuts has to be good. And if it requires the action of dipping, well then, I’m sold.

Dukka

150g hazelnuts

100g almonds

100g sesame seeds

2 Tbsp cumin seeds

2Tbsp coriander seeds

1 Tbsp fennel seeds

¾ tsp freshly ground black pepper

¾ tsp cinnamon

1 ½ tsp vegetable stock powder

Dry-roast hazelnuts on a low flame till the skins crack and the nuts take on a golden, brown-speckled hue. I usually do this in two batches, first getting the skins to crack, rubbing them between a towel, then letting them have a second go in the frypan, for that deliciously toasty hazelnut flavour. Afterwards, let them cool. Repeat with the almonds and the sesame seeds. Next, combine the cumin, coriander and fennel in the pan and dry-roast them until they smell good and have taken on a little colour. Once everything has cooled down, pulse the nuts and seeds, each on their own, until roughly ground. Grind the spices with a pestle and mortar until also roughly ground. Combine with the remaining 3 ingredients. You could of course replace some of the almonds with pistacios for a bit of colour, but quite frankly I don’t think this needs changing.

Why do I always use stock powder? Because it has so much more flavour than plain salt, that’s why. If you don’t like it you can replace it with whatever salt that makes you happy. Just adjust the amount, okay?

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