Easy Chocolate Granola Recipe – Conscious Eaters

material

• coconut oil – I love to bake with coconut oil. It’s slightly sweet on its own and tastes amazing in sweet recipes like this chocolate granola recipe.
• Maple syrup – Maple syrup is a great natural liquid sweetener to use when making granola. It coats all the oats and nuts nicely and creates a crisp, candied texture after heating and cooling.
• Cocoa powder – Cocoa powder makes this granola super chocolatey. I drizzled it with coconut oil and maple syrup and drizzled it over rolled oats and nuts to make sure every bite of this granola is super rich and chocolaty!
• rolled barleys – Rolled oats make the best granola texture in my opinion, so I definitely recommend using rolled oats instead of quick or instant oats.
• Nuts and/or seeds – For this recipe you will need 1.5 cups of chopped nuts and/or seeds. I love to use walnuts, pecans and almonds!
• coconut sugar – Coconut sugar is my dry sugar of choice whenever I’m baking, but any other dry sugar will work. You can use raw cane sugar or even white sugar.
• Mix-in – Although the mix-ins are optional, I love the texture and flavor they add to this granola. To make this chocolate granola recipe even more decadent, you can sprinkle some dairy-free chocolate chips on top of the granola as it dries. Or for a more tart contrast, stir in some dried fruit like craisins or blueberries.

See the recipe card for a complete list of ingredients and quantities.

replacement

• coconut oil – If you don’t have coconut oil on hand, any other neutral-scented oil will work just fine. Try canola, vegetable or light olive oil!
• Nuts and seeds – As long as the amount of chopped nuts and/or seeds equals 1.5 cups, you’re good to go! I almost always have almonds, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds on hand, so I usually use a combination of the three. Just make sure you chop your nuts so they bake evenly.
• Cocoa powder – You can substitute cocoa powder with cocoa powder.
• coconut sugar – Any type of dry sugar will work in this recipe. Cane sugar or white sugar will definitely work.
• Togbog in rolled enthusiasm – I don’t recommend substituting rolled oats for instant or quick oats, but if you are gluten free, make sure your oats are certified gluten free!

1. Include a fat source: I’ve seen granola recipes that coat their oats, nuts, and seeds with low-fat ingredients like applesauce or mashed bananas, but that won’t achieve the crispy clusters you want. You need to include a fat source like oil or almond butter.
2. strategic Oven Positioning: My favorite way to make granola is to bake it on top of the oven for the first 10 minutes and then, without stirring it, move it to the bottom of the oven and bake it for the rest of the time. I don’t stir it half way through and then let it cool completely before breaking it into clusters.
3. Be patient: As your granola cools, the sugars and oils in the granola will harden and stick together creating those oh-so-lovely clusters! If you try to stir or store your granola too quickly, you will prevent those clusters from forming.

storage

This homemade granola, like many other homemade granolas, can be stored at room temperature for up to a month…if that lasts that long! Alternatively, you can store the granola in a freezer-friendly bag in the freezer for about 3 months. Let it come to room temperature before enjoying.