It’s been a while since I’ve baked anything. Grateful for the mid-week public holiday, I was kinda desperate to get busy in the kitchen. In an attempt to try and eat healthy, I thought of baking granola. Been seeing loads of pictures by instagrammers and recipes on the www, so I was really tempted to try my hand at making some.
I eventually settled on using this recipe from E over at missus C’s reverie. I figured that the recipe looked relatively simple and something I could manage. Well, I was wrong…. 
Breakfast Granola
adapted from missus C’s reverie
Ingredients:
- 5 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- Handful of walnuts, roughly chopped
- Handful of sliced almonds (I used whole almonds)
- 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
- Handful of dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
- 1-2 tbsp light brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 tsp salt
Method:
- Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Line an 18×13-inch baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together maple syrup, vegetable oil, brown sugar, and salt. Fold in rolled oats and nuts (except sliced almonds). Mix until the dry mixture is thoroughly coated.
- Transfer mixture to prepared baking sheet. Spread evenly to form an even layer.
- Bake for 45 minutes until mixture is golden brown in color. Stirring every 10-15 minutes. Add in sliced almonds and dried cranberries at the last 5 minutes of baking.
- Let granola cool completely before storing in an airtight container for up to one month.
While the granola was slowly baking, my kitchen was filled with a lovely maple scent. I was so excited thinking that ‘I did it! I’m going to make an awesome batch of home-made granola good enough to share with friends!’
Turned out I was wrong. The nuts that I added into the mix? Well, some of them got burnt along the baking process. Despite this baking boo boo, the granola still tasted great (enjoyed with yogurt/ ice-cream or on its own as a snack). So, I had the burnt nuts removed and kept the rest stored away.
I’m not going let this little mishap stop me. I’m going to try to whip up another batch of these bites. This time round, I’m going to keep stirring the granola during baking to prevent the nuts from burning and put the baking tray a little lower from direct hit.
Send some luck along my way, wont’ you?
And E, if you are reading this? Maybe it really is time for you to send me a batch of your granola to try? ;p Hehe…
Cook bacon slices till brown or crisp in a frying pan.
Next, lightly butter each muffin cup.
You could use a cup or a cookie cutter to make the circular shape for the bread.
Cut bread into half and cover the muffin cup with bread. Use remaining bread pieces to cover the gaps. We realised that we didn’t flattened the bread enough and we probably didn’t use the right type of muffin tray to make this. ;p Brush the tops of the bread with butter.
Sprinkle some grated cheddar cheese in each cup.
Add bacon.
Now, carefully add an egg into each muffin cup. We obviously used the wrong size for the muffin tray. Also, apparently we were supposed to use a paper towel to clean around each muffin cup for any excess egg white that may have spilled over. This step is to make sure the egg cups will be easily removed once baked.
Season with salt and pepper before popping these into a pre-heated oven at 180degrees Celsius to bake them for about 20 minutes (or until the egg whites are set). We realised that we should have omitted adding the salt as the bacon and cheddar provided sufficient salt into this dish.
Once done, remove egg cups from muffin tray and serve them hot.
Enjoy these breakfast delights for we sure did!
Opened by the folks who’s responsible for the success of 
I’m no coffee connoisseur but I do enjoy a cuppa quite frequently, so I was pretty excited to see how good the coffee was. Feeling a little famished from the early breakie we had, I glanced at the menu and spied a couple of items that would be really good as tummy-fillers (appropriately classified if I may add).
We were there at about 2.30pm on a Sunday afternoon and despite the light rains, it was pretty crowded. It was probably the brunch / lunch crowd that we bumped into. Thankfully, it wasn’t exactly a very long wait for we managed to get a counter-seat after about 10 minutes.
After securing our seats, the Man went over to the counter to get our food and drinks. The coffee is freshly brewed and made on the spot. The servers will not be sending you your drinks, so stick around and make sure you pick your beverage orders up before returning to your seat.
A much more satisfying brew if I may add. 
As for light bites? The Man ordered the Hazelnut and Ginger Tea-Cake which I thought was really good. I liked the light hint of hazelnut coupled with the ginger bits in the tea-cake. A refreshing combination that I’ve not tasted anywhere else. Many of the baked goods available at CSHH are made fresh from their kitchen and they run out pretty fast. I saw a fresh batch of lemon madeleines that were placed on the counter and they looked awesome! Pity the queue was too long and I was too lazy to rejoin the queue just to buy them back. This definitely calls for another trip down I guess.
And because we felt like having something savory, we got the Breakfast Daily. Today’s special was the Baked Ratatouille with an Egg. Don’t you just love breakfast items that can be eaten at any time of the day? This definitely was and made for a real satisfying snack.
I do hope we make another trip down soon. Those beef patties that I spied some of the customers having looked super yummy. And if we do come again, I’m going to bring me an empty tummy to fill up on food and coffee. 
Also loving this dreamy photo taken with the Instagram App.
Recommended by our hotel concierge, certé was a stone’s throw away from our hotel. Accompanied the Man to breakfast before he went off to work.
The Man’s seemingly wholesome breakfast burrito versus..
My French toast stuffed with Cheesecake and served with honeyed strawberries. Guess who felt guilty after this breakfast? Thank goodness I was kinda gonna skip lunch.
I’ve to credit the sister for finding out about Plein Sud. For pancakes that are light and fluffy, you don’t want to miss this out.
Arh well, called the girlie and arranged to meet her at Pique Nique (the sister outlet of Antoinette) instead. Well, being early does have its privileges I guess for we were the first patrons of the day.
Buzz and leave a comment