Christmas granola made with the Thermomix® comes down to one key step: warming honey with spices for 4 minutes at 50°C. This temperature releases the essential oils from the cinnamon and gingerbread spice, binds them into the honey and distributes them evenly over every oat during baking. Cold honey stays thick and stiff; honey that is too hot will caramelise the oats until they turn hard.
We have been baking this granola every Advent season for years. The smell while it bakes is reminiscent of gingerbread, yet the granola stays crispy and never turns too sweet. The Thermomix® chops the nuts and apricots to exactly the right size, warms the honey and spice mixture with precision and combines everything without any lumps.
Christmas Granola with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 9 ✓
- 50 g Dried apricots
- 50 g Walnuts
- 50 g Blanched almonds
- 100 g Honey
- 2 tbsp Rapeseed oil
- 1 sachet Vanilla sugar
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Gingerbread spice
- 200 g Rolled oats
Instructions 0 / 4
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1
Chop the ingredients.
Add the apricots to the mixing bowl and chop for 5 sec / speed 7. Add the walnuts and almonds, chop for 4 sec / speed 6 and set aside. Preheat the oven to 150°C fan and line a baking tray with baking paper.
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2
Warm the honey with the spices.
Add the honey, rapeseed oil, vanilla sugar, cinnamon and gingerbread spice to the mixing bowl and warm for 4 min / 50°C / speed 1.
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3
Mix and bake the granola.
Add the nuts, apricots and oats and mix for 2 min / speed 2. Spread the mixture evenly over the baking tray and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for approx. 20 to 25 minutes until crispy.
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4
Storing.
Once cool, crumble into pieces, seal in an airtight container and store in a cool, dark place.
Tip: You can vary the nuts and dried fruit to your taste. Try hazelnuts or figs, for example.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why 50°C is the key temperature for the honey
Honey is thick at room temperature. It sticks to oats but does not coat them evenly. At 50°C, honey becomes fluid enough to form a homogeneous mixture with the rapeseed oil. At the same time, this temperature opens up the aroma structures in the cinnamon and gingerbread spice. The essential oils (cinnamaldehyde in the cinnamon, eugenol and anethole in the gingerbread spice) transfer into the fat and honey phase, and are then fixed during baking.
Above 60°C, honey begins to caramelise. The granola will then turn too dark and bitter in the oven. Below 40°C, the honey stays too thick, the spices distribute unevenly and the granola tastes bland in some spots and overpowering in others.
Honey or maple syrup as the sweetener
We stick with honey because it binds better during baking and clumps the oats into small clusters. Maple syrup also works, but it is runnier and produces a looser granola without clusters. If you prefer chunkier clusters, mix 80 g of honey with 20 g of maple syrup. Treacle tastes too strong and overpowers the gingerbread notes. Agave syrup burns at 150°C more quickly than honey and is not suitable here.
For the gingerbread spice, we use a ready-made blend from a jar and add an extra teaspoon of cinnamon on top. Ready-made gingerbread spice blends often contain little cinnamon but plenty of cloves and cardamom. The extra cinnamon makes the granola taste more festive without the cloves taking over. If you do not have a blend at home, combine 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1/2 tsp cardamom and a pinch of allspice.
Chopping in two stages
The apricots go into the mixing bowl first. Chopping them for 5 seconds at speed 7 gives small but still slightly firm pieces. If we were to mix the nuts and apricots together, we would end up with nut flour and apricot paste. Dried fruit has a different texture from nuts and needs a higher speed.
Then we add the walnuts and almonds and blend for 4 seconds at speed 6. This gives coarse nut pieces that turn crispy in the oven. Blending for longer produces nut flour, which burns in the oven rather than toasting.
150°C fan for even toasting
Toasting the granola for 20 to 25 minutes at 150°C fan makes it crispy without burning. At 180°C or above, the edges of the tray turn dark while the centre is still soft. Fan heat is important because it distributes the temperature evenly and draws out the moisture from the honey more quickly.
Check after 20 minutes. When the oats are golden brown and the granola is firming up, it is ready. Longer than 25 minutes makes it bitter. Many granola recipes use 180°C and a shorter time, but at those high temperatures the small nut pieces burn and the honey aroma becomes flat. At 150°C, the granola dries out slowly, the clusters firm up and the spices stay present.
After ten minutes, pull the tray out once and turn the granola over roughly with a spatula. This lets the bottom layer toast through and prevents the edges from burning. If you prefer thicker clusters, skip the turning and press the mixture down lightly with the back of a spoon before baking.
Adapting the nuts and fruit
Instead of walnuts, hazelnuts or pecans work well. Hazelnuts have a stronger flavour of their own but pair nicely with gingerbread spice. Pecans are softer and brown more quickly, so check after 18 minutes.
For the dried fruit, figs, dates or cranberries can replace the apricots. Figs are sweeter, cranberries are more tart. The sweetness of the honey balances out sharper fruits.
Airtight storage keeps the granola crispy
Once cool, we crumble the granola roughly by hand. Pieces that are too large do not fit into screw-top jars, while crumbling it too finely produces dust. Sealed in an airtight container, the granola stays crispy for four weeks. Without an airtight seal, it draws in moisture and goes soft.
Store in a cool, dark place. Direct sunlight oxidises the nuts and turns them rancid. If you want to keep the granola for longer, add a small food-grade silica gel sachet (like those found with vitamins) to the jar. It absorbs any remaining moisture and keeps the granola crispy for six to eight weeks.
Christmas granola as a gift
Three servings fit into a 750 ml flip-top jar. With a ribbon, a handwritten label and a note saying “Baked in December, stays crispy for four weeks”, the granola makes a lovely personal gift. We do not fill the jars while the granola is still warm. Residual heat creates condensation on the lid and the granola goes soft overnight. Leave the granola to cool completely on the tray first, then fill the jars and seal them.
Goes well with: yoghurt, milk and bananas.
Love homemade granola? Try our Thermomix® Low-Carb Granola and our Thermomix® Bircher Muesli.
