Usually I am one of those people defending the weather here in Northern Germany. Yes, we get a lot of rain and the occasional storm but I could never really understand the people that would move to a country solely because the sun shines year round. Why would you want to live in a place where you can´t move during summer time because it´s 40°C? And doesn’t pure sunshine get boring after a while? Well, I had to change my opinion a little bit last week. I still don´t like it when it´s too hot but hello? Sunshine? Are you there? The weather was just plain horrible last week, I didn´t see the sun for days and on top of that there was a lot(!!!) of rain. This, combined with the beginning of the next semester made me more than bad-tempered and moody.

The only thing that could keep me going were good old bubble baths, knowing that I don’t have to go to University forever, waffles and Disney movies. But the sun is finally here again and with it my motivation and happiness. It really is amazing how the weather can influence one´s mood and feelings and unfortunately we still have a couple of dark months ahead of us. Any tips on how to survive these cold, dark, northern European winters?

Since the weather wasn’t really suitable for long walks in the forest I stayed home and experimented in my kitchen. This recipe was a rather spontaneous happening, mostly due to the fact that I had some leftovers from last week’s post. I have a go-to-recipe for making my own granola and I decided to adapt it to the season by adding dried apples and a bunch of spices.

Today´s post is more of an inspiration than a recipe. You can adapt it completely to your liking. Substitute hazel nuts for almonds, leave out sunflower seeds and add more walnuts, add some more spices…whatever you prefer should work in this recipe, just make sure to keep the dry-to-wet-ingredients-ratio, otherwise the granola might not turn out well.

Makes one big jar:

200 g rolled oats

150 g walnuts

100 g hazel nuts

100 g sunflower seeds

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

½ teaspoon ground ginger

6 tbsp. warm water

4 tbsp. maple syrup or honey

5-6 dried apple rings (recipe here)

1) Chop walnuts and hazelnuts. Mix with rolled oats and sunflower seeds. Add spices and mix well. In a glass, mix water and maple syrup or honey. Drizzle on top of the oat-nut-mixture and mix well.

2) Place the granola on a baking pan, lined with parchment paper and bake in the preheated oven at 175°C for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool completely before adding the chopped dried apples. Store in a large glass jar.