Sweet Sesame Granola

Remember the Choc Cherry Peanut Granola that I came up with last year?  It proved to be very popular, both with lovely people on the internet and us at home.  
New breakfast ideas are always on my mind with the change of season and so I've been tinkering with the recipe to suit my new flavour obsession - sesame!



I love that familiar sesame flavour and have been adding sesame seeds to my flapjack for a couple of years but only lately did it occur to me to add it to granola.  

This new granola recipe uses tahini for extra sesame-ness and I love the way the colours of the green pumpkin seeds and orange dried apricots mixed with the golden roasted oats and seeds and dotted with a few chocolate chips make the granola look very autumnal.



A few months ago I was lured by dark agave syrup at my local health food shop but this recipe works well with honey if you don't want agave or can't find the dark variety.

My Sweet Sesame Granola is, I think, the best one I've made, yet.  If sesame things float your boat then you wont be disappointed with it!




Sweet Sesame Granola

3 cups rolled oats
A quarter of a cup of tahini
A quarter of a cup of dark agave syrup (or honey)
2 tablespoons light brown soft sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Half a teaspoon salt
A quarter of a cup of sesame seeds
A quarter of a cup of pumpkin seeds 
2 handfuls of dried apricots 
Chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 160 Centigrade.
In a large bowl, mix the tahini, agave syrup, sugar, vanilla and salt.
Stir in the oats and seeds until all of the mixture is coated (it might look like there's not enough but keep mixing).
Spread the mixture over two baking trays and bake for 40 minutes, returning to stir the mixture every ten minutes to avoid it burning at the edges.
Remove from the oven and cool.
Chop the dried apricots into small bite-sized pieces and add to the baked granola.  Add the chocolate chips.  Stir to distribute the fruit and chocolate among the granola.




I get an extra little kick out of storing my homemade granola in my gorgeous over-sized glass Ball jar.  It's the simple things..!

What's your favourite ingredient to add to granola?