Chocolate Granola

Recipe ingredients: bowl of cornflakes with a token handful of oats and a generous drizzling of warm honey.

Method: Mix it all together to a sticky paste, carefully slather it on a baking sheet then bake it till it’s golden perfection. Grab the scraper to expunge the sweet gummy mess off the baking tray to a bowl to cool till it’s crunchy. Break into clusters and serve with a thick sprinkling of sugar and a generous pouring of milk.

I was such a healthy child. Thankfully I grew up a little. And so did my granola. I admit I don’t eat it as much as I use to, simply because I’m not a breakfast person anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love my brekkie food but not at the ungodly hours of well, morning (vampire rarr). But you gotta love the granola because it isn’t just for morning sustenance

Chocolate Granola

Ingredients

500g rolled oats
100g dried cranberries or sour cherries, chopped (or substitute with any dried fruits)
50g raisins
50g pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
50g dessicated coconut
3 Tbl cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt

125g brown sugar
100ml water
30g butter
125ml honey
1.5 tsps vanilla extract
150g dark chocolate, chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C and line three baking trays with baking paper.

Place the oats, dried cranberries, raisins, pumpkin seeds, coconut, cocoa, cinnamon and salt in a large mixing bowl and toss until combined (hands are the easiest tool here).

In a pot over medium heat, heat the sugar, water and butter until sugar has dissolved and butter has melted. Add the honey and vanilla and stir to combined.

Remove from heat and add the chocolate and stir until melted and everything is combined.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the oats and with a wooden spoon, mix until everything is coated and combined.

Spread the clusters of granola on the trays in a single layer. Or if you wish, break up the clusters if you prefer a ‘looser’ granola (just like The Captain because crunchy clusters hurts his old man teeth, poor thing).

Bake each tray separately for 20-25 minutes until it’s dried out (granola will get more crunchy as it cools). Make sure to turn the granola and move it around halfway through the baking time to make sure it bakes evenly and doesn’t burn.

The longer you bake it, the browner it gets, which means super crunchy granola but it also burns quickly after 20 minutes so keep an eye on it.

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before storing it in an airtight container.

Serve it with fresh fruit, baked fruits, yoghurt, as a cereal with milk, on ice cream or as crumble on your favourite dessert.

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Recipe lovingly inspired by Nigella Lawson and Delicious Days.

Tagged as: Breakfast, Cereal, Chocolate, Dried Fruit, Granola, Honey, Morning, Muesli, Oat, Pumpkin Seed, Snack