Chewy buckwheat clusters

You should all know by now that i'm a little obssesed with oats...and that doesn't look set to change anytime soon! BUT there is a new kid on the block...in the form of buckwheat. I had a top up delivery of foodie delights from my wholesaler last week which included 10 kilos of raw buckwheat groats!

Up until now I've genrally milled the buckwheat to make flour, since that is the GF flour of choice for the majority of my recipes. However, recently a few recipies using the whole groats recently caught my eye, in addition to a few energy bar experiments that I wil be rervealing more about shortly! This buckwheat granola by Angela over at Oh She Glows particulalrly grabbed my attention and so I wanted to try out my own spin on it!

Anyway, back to the recipe itself. This is a buckwheat granola and I simply swapped buckwheat for the usual oats and in keeping with my sugar free Whole Food Challenge I have used date syrup to sweeten and bind, it works perfectly and gives lovely crispy chewy nuggets of buckwheat delight!

Here I made a date syrup with roughly a 4:1 ratio of dates to water made by soaking the dates in hot water and then blending until smooth (you can make a jars worth and store in the fridge) Once again, we have a very versatile recipe as a great base for ‘mix ins’. Just be sure that the balance of dry ingredients to wet stays roughly the same to ensure the mixture clumps together well as it is baked.

I actually made a similar recipe using a few different ingredients including coconut sugar for a more itense caramelly flavour. You can find the recipe here at Real Food Source  (along with many other recipes I have created for them).

 

Recipe: Buckwheat granola clusters 


Makes 1 ½ cups

Ingredients:

1 cup buckwheat groats (soaked and well drained*- they don't need to be totally dry)
¼ cup date syrup and a pinch of stevia to taste
¼ cup coconut flakes or other nuts/seeds (optional)
2 tbs peanut butter (or other nut butter) this should be drippy
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of sea salt (omit if using salted butter)


Method:

Mix the date syrup with the nut butter of choice, cinnamon and salt. Add the buckwheat groats and coconut flakes, nuts or seeds and mix through lightly until well coated.

Lay in clumps in a even layer on a lined baking sheet and bake on a low temperature- approx 140C for approx 30-40 mins until just golden. The granola will still be soft and sticky but will crisp up as it cools.

*Soak the buckwheat for a few hours or overnight, drain and rinse at least twice as buckwheat residue is very slimy. I prepared a big batch and kept the remainder in the fridge for a few days. to use for other things,

 

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.