Chocolate Granola – thebigmansworld.com

This chocolate granola is wholesome, chocolaty, and crunchy- not simply your common breakfast-next-bowl! It makes use of easy substances and makes a healthful breakfast!

Why you’ll love this chocolate granola recipe

• No sophisticated substances. Don’t you like if you don’t have to run to the shop when making an attempt out a brand new recipe? You want solely 5 easy substances to make this do-it-yourself chocolate granola. And there’s a great probability you have already got a lot of the required parts.
• Crunchy and scrumptious. Probably the most satisfying factor about any cereal is its crunch- particularly granola. And if you make it with nuts, peanut butter, and chocolate chips, it’s like having dessert for breakfast.
• Plant-based. Like protein granola, this recipe has no dairy or eggs, so it’s appropriate for vegans and vegetarians.
• Versatile. One other factor that I like about this recipe is you could get pleasure from it with milk or use it as a topping on your ice cream, in a single day oats, porridge, or smoothie bowls.

Components (and substitutions)

Whereas oats kind the bottom of this recipe, what makes the recipe work is the ratio of oats to peanut butter to maple syrup. Let’s see what you want:

• Oats. Granola is all about nailing the feel, and one solution to obtain that’s by utilizing two totally different sorts of oats. I’ve used a mixture of rolled and fast oats.
• Salt. It helps improve the candy flavors. Don’t omit it! 
• Nuts. That is the place you will get artistic. Combine your favourite chopped nuts within the recipe—almonds, pistachios, peanuts, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, and so forth.
• Chocolate peanut butter. A easy mixture of peanut butter and cocoa powder. For those who can’t discover this in shops, commonplace peanut butter will work. Not a fan of peanuts? No worries! You may strive utilizing chocolate almond butter as an alternative. Or strive my wholesome Nutella for a Nutella-flavored granola!
• Maple syrup. Not solely does this add some sweetness to the granola, but it surely additionally helps kind clusters too. You need to use honey or agave nectar in case you’d want.
• Chocolate chips. What makes this chocolate granola recipe actually stand out is that as an alternative of utilizing cocoa powder, we combine actual chocolate into the recent granola. I like to make use of semi-sweet chocolate chips, however darkish, milk, and even white work.

Easy methods to make chocolate granola 

This recipe’s trickiest half is getting the right crunch. Like crunchy biscotti and peanut butter cookies, you need the crispy bits with each chunk. And whereas the oven takes care of baking every thing completely, comply with the steps fastidiously to get the right granola each single time!

1. Combine the dry substances. Combine oats, salt, and nuts in a big mixing bowl.
2. Combine the moist substances. Soften peanut butter with maple syrup in a microwave till it bubbles.
3. Make the granola combine. Mix the dry and moist mixes till totally included, and layer on a baking tray.
4. Bake the granola. Bake the granola combine at 180°C/350°F in a preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Combine within the chocolate chips, and bake till golden brown.
5. Retailer till later use. Take away the baked granola, enable it to chill right down to room temperature, break the massive chunks, and retailer them in an hermetic container till additional use.

Taste variations

• Add seeds. Omega-3 fatty acids are so good for you! Combine floor flax seeds in your granola combine so as to add them to your weight-reduction plan. Alternatively, you could possibly add pumpkin, sunflower, or chia seeds (we regularly do that in our peanut butter granola recipe).
• Make it gluten-free. Even in case you’re allergic to gluten, you’ll be able to nonetheless get pleasure from these decadent chocolate granola! Simply use licensed gluten-free oats as an alternative.
• Make it coconutty. The coconut-chocolate mixture is a eternally traditional! All it is advisable to do is add unsweetened shredded coconut or coconut flakes to the granola combine.  Add vanilla extract. Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the granola combine. For those who love the choco-vanilla combo, I’m certain you’ll like this variation. 
• Add dried fruits. I like raisins, goji berries, or dried cranberries on this granola. It makes a scrumptious addition!

What to serve with chocolate granola

I like my day a bit higher when it begins and ends with chocolate! To get pleasure from it higher, use the next serving suggestions.

• Yogurt. Combine this granola along with your favourite impartial or vanilla yogurt for a wholesome, healthful breakfast. End with antioxidant-rich berries, and revel in!
• Milk. Stir within the chocolate granola along with your most popular dairy or plant-based milk for a fast breakfast, and revel in it chilly or heat. I like to prime it with recent fruits, berries, and seeds.
• Smoothie bowl. Whether or not it’s a coconut chia pudding, or a yummy smoothie, in my view, it’s incomplete with no beneficiant sprinkle of granola.

Storage directions

To retailer. Granola retains nicely at room temperature in a sealed container for one month.

To freeze. I counsel storing it within the freezer for extra prolonged storage for 3 months.

• Mixing bowls. These massive and medium-sized mixing bowls at all times come in useful when making recipes like this.
• Baking tray. This baking sheet will probably be your finest good friend when making granola, cookies, or macarons!
• Spatula. Similar to you’d fold the cookie dough, combine the dry and blend substances utilizing a spatula. It makes life really easy!

Recipe ideas and tips

• Soften the nut butter with maple syrup. This step ensures you get good chunks of granola to bake. It brings the combination to an ideal workable consistency.
• Use sea salt. Whereas common desk salt works simply fantastic, I encourage you to make use of flaky sea salt within the recipe. It actually enhances the general taste of the cereal.
• Don’t skip the nut butter. Many wholesome recipes on-line use mashed banana or applesauce as an alternative of nut butter or coconut oil. Let me inform you a bit secret! In order for you crispy and crunchy granola, you want a fats element! Olive oil or butter works, however a nut/seed butter will add an additional layer of taste.
• Let the granola cool. Chances are you’ll wish to strive the granola recent out of the oven. However maintain your horses! The pure sugars in granola will harden because it cools down, and the granola will kind the quintessential chunks. 

Steadily requested questions

Extra methods to have chocolate for breakfast