Granola Dust Plus Pancakes!

Since I am not the biggest fanatic of a bacon and egg breakfast this recipe was just my cup of tea (pun intended). It was pretty straight forward but took a little while to do the last step in batches however that was worth it considering all this time later we still have a fair bit in the pantry waiting to be devoured for breakfast or used in more delicious recipes! Anyone who loves a fragrant coffee, toasted muesli or a variety of fruit and nuts for breakfast, well everyone really has to try this one. It’s awesome! Little Miss Pattz didn’t get to try this one because of the coffee but I am sure she will love a child friendly version eventually. (Remember to try it without the caffeine if serving to children).

Ingredients & Substitutions
We were able to find all the ingredients we required this time and most of the more specialty items came in larger portions than required so we have been finding new ways to add extra seeds, nuts and fruits to other meals too. Little Miss Pattz loves chia seeds, linseeds & sesame seeds mixed into her smashed vegetable dishes.
The chia seeds were white instead of black but still just as healthy, the cocoa was supposed to be the best quality you could find and my choice was homebrand or Cadbury so hopefully it is up to the Jamie Oliver standard. There was quite a variety of freshly ground coffee to choose from, at various crazy prices but I went with the old faithful LavAzza as I remember serving it in the Italian cafe I worked in as a teenager. We usually drink instant coffee so we now have the majority of this pack waiting in the freezer for us to decide how best to use it. Maybe we should just make more batches of the granola dust throughout the year! The dried fruit and nuts often seem expensive but when you think about how little you use to get great flavour, they really are pretty good value. The orange looks very yellow in all the pictures because it actually looked that way even without my Photoshop editing. I find it frustrating that you buy a beautiful bright orange bag of oranges but when you get home they are all yellow and the orange plastic netted bag they came in has fooled you into believing they are perfect. At least the flavour was there even if the outside didn’t look very appealing. Another new favourite food for Little Miss Pattz is a smashed orange (no stringy bits to choke on of course) with chia seeds, linseeds and occasionally poppy seeds with a touch of rice cereal to thicken it up if needed. That was the first time she ate the entire bowl of food but we definitely had some interestingly seeded nappies the next day!

Simple Step 1 – Get Nutty & Toast
I used the biggest baking tray I had but since you are doing this in such a large quantity it might be worth toasting in smaller batches for a better result. I poured in the full kilo of oats, then the nuts & the seeds and grabbed handfuls of it, running it through my fingers from a height to mix thoroughly. This technique was in the hope of a great photo of falling oats and nuts but our iPhone photography probably wasn’t the best way to achieve this so perhaps next time we will use the action setting on our proper camera. Once the ingredients were fully combined I thought the height of the tray would prevent the base of the mix getting toasted so I attempted to make some hills and valleys in the mix to increase the surface area (also because I was still in my nighty and couldn’t be bothered doing multiple batches before breakfast, shower or coffee!) I think it worked pretty well and the mix never looked or tasted like raw untoasted oats so here’s to a lazy success!
If like me, you are preparing this on an empty stomach, prepare yourself for the amazing aromas that make you salivate throughout the process. Firstly, open the oven and inhale that beautiful toasty nutty, seedy, oaty goodness that makes you just want to pour milk over the tray and dig in. But if you can wait, I promise it’s worth it! Have a big glass of water or milk or a spoon full of yoghurt to keep you going in the mean time. Oh and don’t forget to stir the oats during the toasting process to encourage an even toastiness (yep I am saying that is a word) but just every few minutes is sufficient, the oven won’t maintain heat with the door open.

Simple Step 2 – Get Zesty & Slice
Get the zest off your orange (or yellow looking orange zest in our case) any way you can. I see on cooking shows all these fancy zesters, special graters and “microplanes” but we don’t have any of those so I just used the good old box grater on the smallest setting it has and it worked pretty well so whatever works for you, improvising is important and can be just as good. Being a little impatient while the oats continued to toast, I thought it might be a good idea to cut up the fruit to encourage the blender to blitz it up well and not kill the blender which is currently my best friend in the kitchen, (I have experience burning out the motor in a blender with frozen spinach, again trying to cut corners that shouldn’t be cut). The recipe doesn’t tell you to cut the fruit but I had to do something to kill time and distract me from my growling hungry tummy. So now we have the delicious fruit mix of cranberries, sultanas, orange zest, figs & apricots and it’s looking delicious already. Who could resist a tiny bit of dried fig to chew on while you finish off (Cook’s treat!).

Simple Step 3 – Measure your Mocha
I measured out all the ingredients as directed, though may have had slightly more fruit than the exact recipe but I think measuring the cocoa and coffee was more important to get right than any other ingredients. Again the intense fragrance of breakfast was present. When you open a fresh bag of ground coffee how can you not want to drool a little or maybe make one of those Homer Simpson food craving noises (you know what I mean). Anyway we know coffee and chocolate are a perfect match and we know orange and chocolate go beautifully together too but I did start to wonder as I smelled the orange zest and coffee lingering in the air… how will this all work together? Plodding on with my faith in Jamie Oliver knowing what he is on about (usually with a few “Come On Eileen” comments along the way), I pulled the toasty mix from the oven and added the mocha mixture… I was instantly in heaven. The hot oats and nuts made the room feel and smell warm and homey but the second the coffee and cocoa powders touched the warm oats the fragrance of them intensified and I was suddenly desperate to finish this dish so I could dive in!

Simple Step 4 – Stir Up The Pudding Diddle Diddle Dum…
Being a Mum and a preschool teacher I can’t help but sing that song every time I mix anything but at least these days I sing it out loud to my daughter rather than just in my head feeling like a giant weirdo.
Yes this step is add the fruit and give it another really good mix.
It really is a simple recipe, how did I already write over 1300 words about it?
Similarly to the previous step, the residual heat picks up the zest and the smell of the room changes again, Mr Pattz by now was pretty keen for breakfast, having already fed Little Miss Pattz hers and was trying to stay out of the kitchen to avoid the delicious smelling air. I think adding the fruit to the warm mixture helped it soften a little which also helped prevent me from breaking the Ninja in the next step.

Look at the colours, the different textures, the different aromas mingling in the air… Oh I am definitely having this again tomorrow now that I have revisited the delicious extravaganza and finally written it all down. Yum!

Simple Step 5 – Mixed & Ready To Be Blitzed!
Although you probably could just scoop out a bowl of this and dive in with some milk (and I seriously thought about stopping right here) there is one last step to go. Blitz it all up into Granola Dust! 
Yes the bigger the blender the less batches you have to do and the less time it will take to get it in your gob but this was not the case for me. Last year I broke a similar blender by not having the lid on tight enough and these blenders turn upside down and the lid attaches to the motor to spin the blade, so the liquid had dribbled through and I had tried to fix it by washing it… well as you can guess that motor was dead but I had kept the attachments thinking they would fit on the Ninja. Another incorrect assumption. I had the big jug out to fill and mix the granola in decent sized batches but Mr Pattz kindly reminded me that it was from the one I broke and wouldn’t fit. Yep he was right.
That was it though, I was just too hungry and couldn’t wait any longer so I filled one smoothie size Ninja cup with the fragrant mixture and blizted away. Mr Pattz had to hold Little Miss Pattz who has recently become scared of loud noises that she used to barely notice, so the blender is now used more often and we are trying to teach her that it’s useful and clever at making yummy food and not something to be scared of. Anyway that lesson is ongoing so a Daddy cuddle was required while Mummy made the scary noise and then we were all ok again and I did not finish blitzing any more until after we had eaten our portion!

Simple Step 6 – Eat, Enjoy & Get Creative!
The recipe has many suggestions of ways to serve the granola dust or even what other dishes can be made with this as a superfood base or ingredient. First off we tried the simple natural yoghurt, fruit & granola dust. This was really tasty and although it didn’t look like much and the small portion recommended per person seemed like nothing compared to the usual Saturday morning bacon and eggs but surprisingly we were both really full and content until lunchtime. Then the following day I made delicious granola dust, wholemeal pancakes with yoghurt and honey and an extra dust sprinkle on top. I have seen recipes floating around the internet suggesting pancake batter based on banana and eggs mashed together but never tried it before, this was a similar concept so again I was unsure of it but they were delicious, light, fluffy and very filling. The pictures make them look burned but I used butter to cook them in my non stick pan (the most delicious way to make pancakes) but that was not strictly part of the superfood guidelines, anyway the dark swirly bits is delicious caramelised butter not burned pancakes. It’s a rare day that we sit down to a pancake breakfast without maple syrup or cream or lemon and sugar by the teaspoon and only 2 per person, but this was delicious, nutritious, filling and we agreed it would make a great substitute for pancakes (which we don’t have very often anyway). I have also tried the granola on it’s own with milk but I forgot to read the recipe which suggests cooking it like porridge and having had it cold, the texture was a little odd (like eating wheat germ in milk but with better flavour). I have had it on top of other cereal and that helped with the texture a bit.
My parents came to visit and Mum tried it with her breakfast and loved it, then I encouraged her to use up some very ripe bananas and make a cake so she added some of the granola dust and a few of the seeds, nuts and dried fruit that were still in the pantry, it worked really well and we didn’t feel guilty eating a wholemeal, superfood, healthy cake.
I intend to add it to a smoothie (have raspberries in the freezer waiting for me to use them) but haven’t had a chance just yet. There are so many other suggested uses for this amazingly delicious granola dust. If this is the only recipe you make from the Jamie Oliver Superfood book, it is still worth buying the book just for this one.

Simple Step 7 – Blitz it, Blitz it.. Blitz it real good 
After a delicious breakfast that tasted like brunch but looked like dessert, I headed back to the kitchen but not to do the dishes just yet, I still had almost a full tray of delicious goodies to turn into dust. There was so much more than I had assumed so I emptied the tall pasta airtight container and used that to store the granola dust which was the perfect size, a happy coincidence and now sits tall in our cereal section of the pantry. The Ninja held up to this long drawn out task and I think Little Miss Pattz got used to the sound after the 5th or 6th batch going through. This was a delight to make and a fantastic way to awaken your senses ready to tackle anything the day (or the teething baby) might throw at you. Final bit of feedback from Mr Pattz was that he liked it a lot more than he expected to and enjoyed having it over his cereal during the week but liked the pancakes the best.

To see the original recipe and more of the Jamie Oliver Everyday Superfood recipes, buy his book or view his website click here.