Flax seeds and coconut granola | gluten free, no bake granola recipe

Flax seeds and coconut granola bars, not baked, cooked in a pan. Yes, you read it right. You would find loads of granola bar recipes on the internet as everyone is baking them. They are such a convenience to have in a jar or in a cute box if you please :-)

Just a bar in the morning can take care of your breakfast with one fruit and a glass of milk (full fat please). I keep making my granola bars with seasonal fruits and oats or sometimes grain free too. While most of them are baked, this one is a pan cooked granola which many of you can make easily. I have been getting requests for posting more such recipes that can be made even if you don't own an oven.

Fair enough. Complicated recipes should not be a reason to not to be able to eat healthy.

Here I am with the easiest granola cooked in a heavy pan (Indian kadai). Flax seeds and coconut heavy, just a little oats so it becomes easy for a beginner to hold it together. I make this one grain free as well.

You need to do some preparation if you do not get Flax seeds meal and Coconut flour or flakes in your part of the world. I had to do a prior arrangement too. Actually in the day time I powdered the flax seeds, chopped and powdered the dry coconut so at night when I am cooking on the gas stove, things are quicker in the heat. It is 45-46 C in Delhi right now and you are better off if you are quick with your hands when the stove is on.

The oats needs to be toasted lightly in a pan too. On medium low flame just for a period of 5 minutes, or till it becomes fragrant. This step can be done while another pan cooks the syrup. Read on....

ingredients...
flax seeds meal 500 gm ( I used whole flax seeds, ground them to a coarse powder)
coconut meal 300 gm (whole dry Kopra, sliced and then ground to a coarse powder)
oats 100 gm (toasted lightly n a pan for a couple of minutes)
Jaggery 500 gm
water 1 cup
2 plates and ghee for greasing them

procedure...

Keep ready all the powders as indicated in the ingredients list. It will be very convenient if you get flax seeds meal and coconut flour in your part of the world. Toasting the oats can be done along with the cooking of jaggery syrup on the side burner. I used Quaker oats, the porridge variety.

Pour water and tip in the jaggery in a wide pan (of about 3 L capacity so you can stir the mixture easily) and put this on heat so the jaggery melts and starts bubbling.

This syrup needs to cook till it gets frothy and starts rising up the pan. You need a big wide pan I told you.

As soon as you see the jaggery syrup getting frothy and rising up the pan, tip in the coconut meal first. Mix it till the syrup looks like a slurry and bubbles gently once again. This step ensures the dry coconut meal gets drunk on some liquid to become more flavorful.

Take the pan off the stove and hold it well so you can mix well when other ingredients are added.

As suggested in the last step, as soon as the slurry bubbles like lava just once, tip in the flax seeds meal and mix thoroughly. The mixture becomes almost crumbly and hard to mix, use some muscle to mix well so everything gets homogenised.

Lastly add the toasted oats and mix once again.

Grease 2 plates with ghee, divide the cooked mixture into two and dump each half one each of the plates. Smoothen the lump on the plate and flatten with the help of greased knife. Or a grease base of a flat bottom bowl (katori).

Wait for about 15 minutes to cool and score into bars of required size. Grease the knife a few times between scoring the lines...

After about three hours it should get hard enough to cut once more with increased pressure and slide the knife gently under the bars so they lift up. Separate all the bars neatly. I kept the plates covered overnight as I cooked it late in the night. Next morning it was easy to handle them.

The texture will be chewy and may be crumbly when you cut, but the bars get set after a while.

Wrap in butter paper if taking for travelling or keep in an airtight container as it is. It is a great traveling food and I make either these or these sesame bars when traveling. Wrapped in butter paper they are easy to carry in your day bag.

Did I say it can be a nice school snack for your kids. Even the sesame bars. And your office munchies in the mid morning time of crisis....

Keeps well for a fortnight. Even longer.

As you can see, the butter paper is speckled with fat. It's all healthy fat from Flax seeds and coconut. Very filling and very satiating. Tasty as hell. Especially if you like jaggery. Otherwise use honey and bake the mixture to get bars.

You can always use some dried fruits or nuts in this granola as well, but i prefer them more for snacking on their own and as an addition to my salads. This granola bar is different from any such granola bar on the block...

Let me know when you make them. I am sure this will be your new favorite granola on the go....

Cheers.