This recipe, and the raw honey in it, are gifts from my neighbors Judith and Bill. They keep bees, grow all sorts of yummy things in their garden, and let me pick from their raspberry patch conveniently located at the end of my summer jogging loop. If you can’t get honey, use maple or birch syrup.
Why raw? Not all honey is created equal and there is a lot of conflicting stuff on the internet because, well, because anybody can say anything. I always go back to the scientific literature. In this case, the story on raw honey is very clear:
• Raw honey’s ability to fight bacteria, fungus, even parasite infections has to do with certain enzymes.
• Heat (pasteurization) and light destroy these enzymes and honey loses all antiseptic properties becoming no better than sugar. In fact, it becomes a food source for unwanted guests after it is sterilized by heat treatment.
So even though manufacturers of cheap pasteurized and ultra-filtered honey claim their product has the same health benefits, in truth it doesn’t—there is a big difference.
It is important that your honey is raw and from a known source: as soon as honey is pasteurized it becomes just as bad as table sugar for spiking your blood sugar—and your waistline! Raw honey is alive with enzymes and other health beneficial nutrients. Pasteurized honey is, well, sterile and not any better for you than high fructose corn syrup.
Bill, I know that a lot of people dislike bees or are afraid of them. Thanks for bringing greater understanding of them into our lives. Judith—thanks for quickly describing the recipe and I hope I came close.
I thought long and hard on how to name this incredible breakfast dish. Although it is great in a bowl with unsweetened almond milk, the word cereal means:
1. A grain used for food, such as wheat, oats, or corn.
2. A grass producing such grain, grown as an agricultural crop.
No cereal or other grains in this dish; nope.
And then there is “granola.” The word itself means “grain” and the “ola” part is popular with tradenames, crayola, canola, … moving on…
Maybe muesli? Although muesli is usually filled with oats it doesn’t have to be. Toasted nuts, healthful raw honey, and fruit are the perfect breakfast.
About 10 x 1 cup servings
Ingredients
2 cups sliced raw almonds
2 cups pecan pieces
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitos)
2 cups raw cashew pieces
½ cup raw sesame seeds
½ cup raw flax seeds
½ cup raw honey (or grade A dark maple syrup or birch syrup)
⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
1 cup dried fruit (unsweetened—these are already chopped small)
Preparation
1. Preheat your oven to 350o
2. Put all the nuts and seeds into a large bowl and mix together.
3. In a saucepan slowly warm the honey or maple syrup and oil over low heat until just runny—do not overheat or cook—just needs to melt…
4. Add the vanilla.
5. Pour the honey/maple/or oil mixture over the nut mixture and toss to coat.
6. Spread the nut mixture evenly over an oiled baking tray (or lined with parchment paper if you find this easier).
7. Toast in the oven for about 8 minutes, stir and then toast 5-8 more minutes until the nuts are turning golden.
8. Return the nut mixture to the large bowl and stir in the dried fruit. Don’t bake the fruit with the nuts and seeds because they will burn and turn bitter. Store in canning jars, keeps for weeks in the refrigerator (maybe longer–we seem to keep running out so we don’t really know) and are shelf stable in the pantry for the same amount of time.
Copyright © 2012-22 Marie Cecchini Sternquist. All Rights Reserved
Hello my loved one! I want to say that this article is amazing,
nice written and come with almost all vital infos.
I’d like to see more posts like this .
Thank you! And do keep exploring this site for more posts on healthy eating with tasty, amazing foods.
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I made this for my four children this morning, and it was a hit with all of them! I didn’t have any raw honey, so used maple syrup instead. Also didn’t have pumpkin seeds, so subbed some hazelnuts and Brazil nuts, added some flaked coconut, and had only flax meal not flax seeds. It was delicious and filling! Thank you!
Thank you Wendy! I love meeting people who cook like me – a bit of this, that, the other thing… Cheers! Marie
Doesn’t the oven kill the enzymes in the honey?
This is a good question – an answer from a bee keeper: heating honey definitely kills some of its valuable enzymes. The trick is to only use short periods of time and spread the mixture thin so it cools very quickly after removing from the oven. There is a time curve meaning that not all enzymes are killed in 5 minutes; a time curve means that enzyme activity drops off gradiently with longer time at higher heats. Pasteurized honey (which is also usually filtered and fine filterd, see below) may have a small amount of enzyme activity left when you buy it–very small but just err’ing on the side of there might be some; in contrast raw honey has most if not all of its original enzyme activity. After baking, pasteurized honey that was mostly dead to start with now is truly dead. Raw honey may have lost some enzyme activity but certainly not all.
Pasteurization started as a heat treatment to kill yeast that naturally live in the honey but would shorten the shelf life. In time, higher temperatures and longer times were used to address the fact that commercial bees fed sugar are not very healthy and either is their honey. Today, pasteurized honey is also filtered and sometimes fine filtered not only to make it clear/non-crystalline but also to remove the harmful bacteria and yeast that are not a problem when the hive is kept healthy. This multistep process does destroy most of the enzymes. It also denatures the sugar complex–meaning it is no longer “alive” with all the enzymes and minerals and is now simple sugar. This creates a huge blood sugar spike.
Also note: In recent years, huge amounts of honey have shown up in the US from some countries in Asia and South America that have been highly adulterated with other sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup and also contain chemicals and antibiotics that are illegal to use in this country. Even in our country, cheaper honey brands also have these problems. This might seem off topic but the beekeeper who knows his or her honey is going to be sold raw takes extra care to ensure a healthy hive and a pure product.
Hope this helps.
Marie
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