In Anticipation of Autumn...

Dark mornings with a chill that takes its time to lift. Miserable drizzle and a general dip in joviality. People of Britain, summer is over.

The change in seasons seems to have creeped up on me so suddenly, I wasn't prepared. I've been enjoying the last of frozen summer berries on my oats in the morning, slinking about the house in a T-shirt and putting off the need to think about the dreaded run around for a new winter coat. But there's no denying it, September is very nearly over and autumn is here.

But! It’s not all bad. With the colder weather comes those glorious sunrises, frost-touched ground, cosy evenings in and plenty of opportunity to get experimenting in the kitchen to put a healthy twist on rib-sticking classic comfort food.

To be fair, the majority of my day has been spend designing and perfecting a Christmas promotional poster – watch this space – so I shouldn’t be all too surprised that after hours spent trawling through images of snowflakes, sparkles, baubles and ribbons I turned to somewhat festive, warming spices and flavours when I headed into the kitchen for a break from the laptop.

I’ve been munching on this granola for the past few months so felt a change was most definitely in order. As I said before, this recipe is distinctly autumnal with cinnamon, ginger and toasty maple syrup for a caramel sweetness. Delicious served atop yogurt with a splash of milk and some seasonal fruit.

Autumn Spice Maple Granola

Makes a little over 500g - 12 servings

180g jumbo oats

90g regular oats

120g mixed nuts, roughly chopped*

35g raw millet**

70g mixed seeds

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

60ml pure maple syrup

10ml flavourless virgin oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 160C and line a baking tray with parchment
2. Add the oats, chopped nuts, milled, seeds and spices to a large bowl
3. Combine the maple syrup, oil and vanilla in a small saucepan and heat gently before pouring over the dry mix and stirring thoroughly to combine
4. Spread the mix onto the tray, compacting down some so to create nice clusters as it bakes; transfer to the oven and bake for 30 minutes until nicely toasted. Rotate the tray halfway through and resist the urge to stir
5. Leave to cool for a 20mins or so before transferring to an airtight container

* I used 40g each almonds, walnuts and plain peanuts
** This is optional, if you don't have millet to hand add in some additional oats