Baking Autumn

Freshly baked pumpkin granola. I made this last weekend, and ate it each morning for breakfast for the whole of the week following. After I took this photo and it cooled to room temperature, I mixed in some tiny dark chocolate chips, which was the perfect addition.

When autumn arrives and it finally does cool down, I am inspired to try some cooking/baking experiments. I am not a baking/cooking expert, and I tend to like very simple things. Granola is the perfect autumn and winter breakfast staple, and after seeing an idea on a blog, I decided to bake some of my own granola, which I have never done. Occasionally I get these fancies to try something I haven't done before. 

This granola experiment turned out to be quite delicious. I altered the recipe I saw, which is what I tend to do with recipes, and I don't really measure things, but give general estimates of what I used. But it is pretty easy to mix it all and see if you need more. 

For this batch, I started with a tablespoon of olive oil, mixed a few tablespoons of honey, a few dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg, half a can of pumpkin, a dash of vanilla extract, 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, sliced almonds, a dash of salt, and mixed it all into old-fashioned rolled oats. Once it was mixed well, I spread it out onto parchment paper on a baking sheet, and baked at 325 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. I stirred about halfway through. Once cooled, I mixed in the chocolate chips.

Each morning, I poured some into a bowl, and added in unsweetened vanilla almond milk. It was like pieces of autumn were crumbled into my bowl. While it was baking, my whole home smelled like granola, cinnamon, and pumpkin, which was the most autumnal and cosy scent.