Dear Friends;
Oats are an interesting part of the gluten-free journey. Wheat isn’t the only grain that contains gluten: there are spelt, barley and rye to name a few. Oats, on the other hand, do not in and of themselves contain gluten, and yet they are deemed unsafe.
Why is that?
The culprit is cross-contamination.
Cross contamination happens when foods are present in facilities that manufacture other foods. And oats, for example, are often milled or processed in the same place as wheat; they are often grown in fields adjacent to wheat fields. This makes them prone to having particles of wheat mixed in with them.
Enter certified gluten-free oats.
Gluten-free oats have all the same qualities as regular, non-certified oats, except they are “safe” and available at most health food stores, both in the UK as well as the US. Yay!
As I mentioned before, I don’t have much experience with oats. When I was a child, the only time I had oatmeal was when we would choose the “healthier” options at the mall in Florida, where we would visit my grandparents every summer; or Quaker instant oatmeal – the apple cinnamon kind (though I’m dubious as to whether they really contained apples or cinnamon).
And the plain, watery-oatmeal with a teaspoon of sugar that many Brits seem to love doesn’t float my boat.
But being married to a Brit means oats are here to stay. I found myself a little dubious but excited to find a way to love these little low GI, exceptionally power-packed little buggers.
I checked out DW’s store-bought granola that advertised itself as “healthy” – a statement that immediately makes me suspicious. The amount of sugar and other sweeteners was incredible: sugar, honey, molasses, cane sugar, palm sugar, you name it, it seemed to be in there!
When compared to a deep-fried Mars bar (another thing I was not aware of until I met my husband), granola is probably “healthy” – and who can forget the reputation it earned itself in the seventies and eighties??? …
But check the labels and you might be surprised…
Anyway, for obvious reasons, I decided to try my hand at making my own version. While there are already many many other granola recipes out there, here is my version.
With love,
Gabriela
P.S. DW deemed it “delicious”
The Picky Foodie’s Old Fashioned Granola
- 2c gluten-free oats
- 1c almonds, roughly chopped
- 1c apple-juice sweetened, non-sulphured* cranberries (these are much darker than the sugared, sulphured* kind)
- 1c chopped dried apricots (again, the non-sulphured* kind are brownish instead of eighties orange)
- 1/2T vanilla powder
- 1/2c brown rice flakes
- 1c shredded coconut flakes
- 1/2c date syrup
- 1/8c melted coconut oil
- 1/8c whole tahini
Toast the oat flakes in a pan at 160 degrees Centigrade / 320 Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes (give them a good shake every few minutes)
While the oats are toasting, mix the almonds, cranberries, apricots, vanilla, brown rice flakes and coconut flakes in a big bowl.
Once the dry ingredients are well mixed, add the date syrup, coconut oil and tahini and, once again, mix well.
Add the oats once properly toasted.
Line an oven pan with parchment paper and pour the mixture in.
Bake for 12 minutes.
After 12 minutes, turn the pan around so the side closest to the door is now furthest away, and bake for an additional 10-12 minutes.
Please allow to cool fully before attempting a taste.
* NOTE: used as a preservative in dried fruit and wine, sulphur dioxide (also known as E220) helps dried fruit retain its colour and prevents rotting. However, it can cause headaches, bloating, gas and other uncomfortable symptoms in sensitive individuals and is thought to possibly be carcinogenic in large quantities. Organic dried fruit will not contain sulphur dioxide.
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