Healthy Oats Chikki, Granola

Oats Chikki/granola

Oats Chikki or Granola is delicious and a must try. It is great way to power up better than the store brought Granola Bars with the goodness of nuts.

I had some muesli about which I had plans to convert to granola but postponing. As a result it started racing fast to it expiry date and now being on leave, I decided to do something to stem the rot.

The firs thing I did was heated it lightly in a kadhai to give it some crispness. Then I let it cool.

Meanwhile I got out my hoard of dry fruits after stealthy glance all around to see if anyone is watching me. Grab a few almonds; pistachios it does not matter how many will count later.

At a leisurely pace I got out my cashew nuts, walnuts , raisins, groundnuts warmed them up too just to get rid of the raw nutty ( I like the smell but I need to get rid of the moisture from them after storing them in the fridge).

In Goa we get different kinds of cashew nuts right from the big ones whole, the ones split into two or which is broken bits tukda kaju, to the smallest bit Kani ,that can be directly used in Kheers no need to make smaller pieces . I generally buy this and use it for grinding into curries as they are cheapest and cost efficient.

Since I do not have good honey and was reluctant to use sugar I used chikki jaggery that is beckoning me everyday to do something different out of it.

These measure are by no means standard you can adjust as per taste, needs and budget.

To sum up I used:

Muesli or rolled oats (about 500 grams)

20 almonds,

15 pistachios

About cup full of Kaju kani

¼ cup raisins

½ cup of groundnuts.

½ cup of roasted til/sesame seeds

I used 215 grms of this jaggery cut into small bits

½ cup of homemade ghee

Method:

1. As I have already said warm everything right from the muesli to the nuts.

2. When they cool down coarse grind.

3. At this point of time I started wondering about the quantity of the ground mixture I had so I weighed it. It measured 750 grms I used 580 grams should have used only 500.

4. In a thick kadhai add the ghee and jaggery.

5. The jaggery will melt and start boiling. Test it to see if it has reached the hard ball stage. (A drop of jaggery in cold water should form a hard rock when pressed).

6. Add the muesli 500 grams only or as much as much as needed to form 1 lump and mix and stir fast. Transfer to the kitchen platform and roll out to the ½ inch thick roti. Cut when cool to desires size and shapes.

7. Store in an airtight container.

I made the mistake of adding too much of muesli and so my granola/chikki would not set. So to rectify matters I transferred it to a tray and baked it at 230°C for 10minutes.