100th Post/2nd Blogaversary: Vanilla, Matcha (Green Tea) Granola
I know everyone says this but, blogging really isn’t all that fun without your support and readership, new friendships made whether it’s through leaving kind comments around the food blogging community, being instagram buddies or sharing advices and whatnots. SO a massive thank you goes to each of you out there who’s reading this at the moment. I still remember the first time I decided to write my very first post after being inspired by other food bloggers. I remember it being specifically on the ANZAC day long weekend. I was supposed to be starting on an english essay but instead spent the whole entire weekend…
- writing a new post,
- making a new banner,
- thinking of a suitable blog name, (which I probably changed 5 times, no I probably still wouldn’t tell you what the original idea was)
- editing photos- going a little overboard with the contrast & vibrance settings,
- and just generally being frustrated at not knowing how the whole blogger dashboard works
I forgot about the blog for a whole month and came back to it and saw something like 60 views in the past month, I decided WOW real people read my post? Okay, it could be me clicking it half the time to just see how it turned out but stillll… It was just so cool to see the stats graph showing which countries the readers come from, what browser they’re using. Then my first spam comments came rolling in, then some nice comments, then I went a little obsessive on foodgawker and tastespotting as if my happiness depended solely on them accepting my photo or not… I went in way deeper into the world of food blogging, reading every post from my favourite blogs through google reader, browsing food porn through foodgawker, collected cookbooks I never used, started to care about props and before I knew it, it became a regular routine that I love- cook/bake, style, shoot, -clean up the biggg mess-, edit, post aaaand repeat.
Thank you to all my school friends and family who supported me, and showed interest (whether genuine or feigned) in my ramblings about it, to the bloggers I look up to from Day 1 to the present day. Real people putting in so much effort in sharing such high quality content and images (lots of them for free!) for us to enjoy, sharing tips and creative recipes along the way. That’s what I call good stuff. And of course, thanks to you all readers who don’t have a food blog but enjoy reading them… I was even pleasantly surprised yesterday when I saw the hashtag #aswoonfulofsugar being used by another person for the first time other than me! You can’t imagine how happy it makes me to know that people really are trying out your recipes out there and seeing people hashtag some made up blog name of yours just feels aweeeesome. Let’s continue this blogging thing for a while longer yeah? I’ve got way too many props now that it would seem a waste not to use haha, and tons of inspiration in me that I’d love to share with you guys anyway. Year three here we goooo. Let’s stuff it with many goodies.
Vanilla, Matcha (Green Tea) Granola
Recipe adapted from Chika @ She Who Eats
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 4 tbs olive oil
- 5 tbs honey
- pinch of salt
- 1-2 tbs green tea powder, plus more for finishing
- 1 egg white
- 1 vanilla bean, split
- 1/3 cup untoasted sesame seeds (I used both black and white)
- 1 cup nuts, toasted (I used pepitas, pistachios, almonds)
- 1 cup fruits (goji berries, chopped dried apples, chopped dates)
- 1/2 cup chopped white chocolate
- 1/2 cup puffed buckwheat (you can use rice krispies, bran sticks whatever you want just to keep the textures interesting)
1. Preheat oven to 130C and toast the rolled oats on a lined oven tray for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, honey, salt, green tea powder and the seeds scraped from the vanilla bean until well combined. Toss in the hot toasted oats and sesame seeds into the mixture and stir to coat oats evenly. Spread mixture back to lined tray and bake for a further 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Note: we want to try and take it out before it browns and loses the green colour. I took mine out a little too late. It’s okay to take them out while they are still a little wet in the oven, they should crisp up as it cools. If not you can put it back in the oven for as long as it needs)
3. Add the chopped nuts, the vanilla beans (just for flavour) and fruits and stir well. Add a little more powdered matcha if you like at this point. When completely cool, add the chopped chocolate and puffed buckwheat. Store in an airtight container. Serve with matcha milk for extra indulgence. Makes about 4 cups.
Have a great long weekend to my fellow aussies. See you soon x
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