food & photography
Weekends have started being more relaxed for me these days, with the change in weather. And now that early morning workout regime has shifted to a full fledged hour long fitness session at my gym, I tend to get up not so early these days. Otherwise, I am an early riser (read before sunrise here), who would not sleep for long hours in the morning, even on weekends. …
Pumpkin maple nut granola, this might sound a little late and off placed for this season. Fall has been long forgotten and we are almost mid way through the winters, gorging onto hearty comforting meals and hot soups. But what would you do if you have loads of frozen pumpkin lying in the freezer for almost over 2 months now.
I got this big stash of leftover roasted pumpkin from the giant pumpkin I got for making this wonderful roasted pumpkin and apple soup last year during autumn {and you know what, there is still some left even after making this granola, so expect some more off season leftover pumpkin recipes to come by here}.
And I think winters are the perfect time to bake some granola too, when you get super lazy all wrapped up in the blanket and find it immensely hard to get up on time early in the morning and make yourself a good breakfast. My body just goes to hibernate and I am almost everyday running for the office in the morning, that is when I think this granola kind of breakfast comes in super handy.
And it is good enough to save you off the inflicted laziness of the winters. It’s full of fiber, nutrients, loads of dried fruits and nuts, which are really essential to keep your body warm too. I sweetened this granola using maple syrup and some demerara brown sugar. It’s recipe which I kind of developed myself adapting from some of my previously tried out granola recipes.
This one is amazing and keeps good for a very long time. The granola is crispier and gets some natural sweetness from the pumpkin too. You can add any mix of nuts and dried fruits to it, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, coconut, dried berries, or even summer fruits like dried apricots too, basically whichever you fancy and whatever you have at hand.
While I got a little late in posting this recipe by few days, it is still not that late. As you’d still be able to find the last of persimmon fruit this season, somewhere tucked on the shelves of your local fruit merchant. Persimmon make their appearance although for a very short time during the months of fall season, them being the sturdy fruit with longer shelf life, they tend to stay for sometime. At least good enough for you to make something delicious out of them. Last year we enjoyed them with some yougurt and homemade granola, served in small tumblers, just as a healthy alternative to an indulgent parfait. I baked this indulgent persimmon maple upside down cake a couple of weeks back, but I couldn’t get time to publish this on the blog. Persimmons are not new to us. We’ve been enjoying these sweet pulpy fruit every year from a very long time now. On my recent trip to mountains, we enjoyed them a lot too. You’d find them in plenty on mountains, where they call it Ramphal in local language. The ones I bought were quite firm,which would be good to be baked in a cake or a pie. The recipe is from a book called Indulgent Cakes, which I bought recently. The beautiful pictures made me swoon over all the recipes in the book. While I found the pictures quite awe-inspiring, I found the recipe measurements slightly off. The proportions of butter and sugar to flour appeared way more indulgent to me, than I would generally prefer. So, I cut them down slightly and I found the final outcome perfectly sweet for my tastebuds. I would still like to try few more recipes from the book, before I come to any conclusion. To be honest, I really liked the combination of flavors which have been brought together. This has got maple syrup, persimmon, pistachios and semolina. Quite unusual pairings, yet very tasteful.
