Hmm… I’m not doing a very good job convincing you that I’m not a chocolate person, am I. Well, this granola is the shiznit, even for a non-chocolate person like myself.
Granola uses sugar and oil to bind everything together, so it’s fairly caloric by nature. Because of that, I didn’t need to add any extra sugar or fat to turn my regular granola recipe into a chocolaty delight. I decided to cut my imminent snacking rampage short by making a small batch… because if I have granola in my vicinity, I can’t stop. If regular granola is highly addictive, this chocolate granola is even more so. Be warned: it’s dangerously delicious.
It’s super chocolaty, not too sweet, and has lots of yummy coconut and almonds in it. And did you see my price? Yeah, how much is that teensy-weensy bag of chocolate granola cereal at the store? $5? Ha! Knowledge is power. Use it wisely.
Remember how your Chocolate Pebbles and Coco Puffs cereal used to turn your milk into chocolate milk when you were a kid? This granola does that, too. Value added!
Want a low sugar, low fat granola-essque breakfast? Try muesli! It’s one of my favorites!
Choco-coconut Granola
Servings 4Ingredients
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats ($0.42)
- 1/3 cup shredded coconut ($0.26)
- 1/3 cup sliced almonds ($0.37)
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil ($0.06)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar ($0.08)
- 2 Tbsp honey ($0.15)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract ($0.03)
- 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder ($0.12)
- 2 Tbsp water ($0.00)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the dry rolled oats, shredded coconut, and sliced almonds.
- In a small pot, combine the oil, brown sugar, honey, salt, vanilla extract, cocoa powder, and water. Heat over a medium-low flame and stir until the sugar is dissolved (about 5 minutes).
- Pour the chocolate mixture over the oats. Stir very well until everything is evenly coated. Cover a baking sheet with foil and pour the oat mixture out onto it. Spread the mixture into a layer about 1/2 inch thick. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.
- When the granola comes out of the oven, take a spatula and press it down to compress it. Allow the granola to completely cool. Once cooled, break into chunks and serve or store in an air-tight container at room temperature.
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Nutrition
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Step By Step Photos
Begin by combining the oats, coconut, and almonds. Stir until they are evenly mixed. You can used sweetened or unsweetened shredded coconut. I would have preferred unsweetened, but my store only had sweetened. :(
Combine the rest of the ingredients (oil, brown sugar, honey, salt, vanilla extract, cocoa powder, and water) in a small pot. Heat over a medium-low flame and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
There, it’s all dissolved. That only took a few minutes.
Pour that chocolate mixture over the oats/coconut/almonds.
Stir, stir, stir, and stir until everything is evenly coated in chocolate goodness.
Spread the mixture out on a baking sheet that has been covered in foil. Bake in a preheated 300 degree oven for 45 minutes – no stirring required.
After it comes out of the oven it will still be soft. Press it down with a spatula to compress the granola – this is going to be what makes the nice large chunks when it cools.
Let it cool COMPLETELY and then break it up into chunks. You can store this granola at room temperature in an air-tight container.
Move over Count Dracula!
Okay, while typing this up I thought about how awesome it would be to add some banana chips to this. Do it after it’s baked so that you don’t burn them.
Also, I might have to try making an Aztec Cocoa version… YUM!
Hey Beth!
This is in the oven right now. The syrup smells and tastes exactly like brownie batter!! I can’t leave well enough alone, so I tripled t recipe and added chopped pecans and chopped almonds, extra coconut, some pepitas and some blanched almond flour because it’s all I had and I like a busy granola.
Because of all the extras, I increased the syrup ingredients a little to cover everything and it worked perfectly. Checking it at 20 mins, then 35. I think it’ll be done then.
You’re right, banana chips would be good, as would peanut butter in the syrup. I don’t think any fruit other than banana would be good with this… Would it? Hrmmm…
I’ve recently started to make my own granola due to the prices of what I used to by increasing so much. This one is a definite winner. Even though I overcooked it a little, my fiance says it’s the best recipe I’ve tried yet!
Is “the dough” supposed to be sticky or like when i put it on the pan?
Not too sticky but just enough to spread out onto the pan.
Can you use aquafaba instead of the oil for this recipe?
Yes you can!
Update. I made this with 1/2 cup of aquafaba following the “oil-free granola” instructions for mixing. I left out the extra water and baked for 40 min at 250 degrees on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. It came out perfectly and still broke into nice chunks!
YUMMY!!! Eating this with yoghurt and strawberries for an afternoon snack!
I followed this recipe to a T with no substitutions. At 33 minutes it started to burn. Disappointed that this recipe didn’t pan out.
I have made this more times than I can count. Read through the comments and noticed that a few people said theirs was burned. I only had one batch that burned and it was cooked on a metal cookie sheet. All the other times I used a baking stone and it turned out perfect. My favorite thing about this? After I’ve eaten a bowl, the leftover milk is chocolatey goodness!
I love Almond Joy candy bars and I am definitely going to give this a try. I normally make a soaked granola that I do in my dehydrator so going to see if I can adapt my recipe with these flavors!
Nice chocolate granola that isn’t sweet. I used Let’s Do Organic Unsweetened Coconut because that is what we had, but I think it would be better with the chunkier sweetened version of coconut. That way you would see and taste the coconut more, and it would give it a little more sweetness. The first bite had a slight bitter or possibly borderline burnt taste, but I added whole milk to it and that went away. This would also be great on top of coconut Greek yogurt!
Followed the instructions exactly and it came out amazing. It really satisfied my chocolate craving.
I made this recipe last night but substituted the vegetable oil with coconut oil and added coconut coated cashews from Trader Joes.
The house smelled lovely with the mixture of delicate chocolate and subtle hints of coconut! My mouth was watering the whole time this aroma was infiltrating the rooms from the baking.
As for the outcome, it is fantastic. I ate some for breakfast with some milk and I love it! I like how the granola is crunchy and not too sweet. It has that perfect amount of chocolate that entices you to eat more and not feel bad about it. Who knew that chocolate and coconut was a great combination!
Thanks again for this awesome recipe! I am inspired to explore more, especially with oats and granola. I may not be the best cook since I tend to burn things, but this has made my day, and possibly my week! :)
Love it!
I made this today and the wet ingredients didn’t coat the dry. What did I do wrong?
It always looks like it won’t be enough when you first start stirring, but if you stir and stir and stir, eventually everything will be lightly coated.
This is the best granola I’ve ever made… and I’ve been making a lot lately. It actually turned out and stayed together instead of crumbling apart. It tastes amazing. Thank you!!!!
How long will this keep at room temperature?
Just as long as any normal dry cereal. Just keep it sealed tight so that it doesn’t go stale. :)
These are soOo good although the second time I made them I forgot the water and it didn’t come out crunchy at all. So much regret
Also just wanted to say that I think using varying degrees of parboiled (quick cook) oats may be the reason for everyone’s cook time discrepancies. That being said, I kinda wish I used my quick oats for this double batch in the oven right now!
made this a year or so ago and it was awesome. Just bought some Nature’s Path Love Crunch granola and its basically the same thing-but with small chunks of chocolate and small pieces of freeze dried strawberries mixed in once it’s cooled and broken up. Eating it reminded me of making this recipe before, and I think I’m going to have to make some once the store bought version runs out. Love your recipes.
AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are in love with this recipe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After reading all the comments on how easy it is to burn this recipe and knowing how i tend to burn things all the time! I set the temperature at 250 and baked them for about 30-40 minutes. I basically watched it closely at all times and it was so worth it. I added whole pecans, dark chocolate chunks and dried cranberries. Such a good mid-afternoon snack. We always keep these ingredients on hand so we plan to repeat this recipe in the future.
Thank you!!! 5 stars!
45 mins @ 300 degrees was WAY too long for my oven, all I got was a burnt black mass. I’ll try it again cuz it sounds like Almond Joy granola, but I’ll have to keep a closer eye on it.
The granola is cooking and it smells FABULOUS!!! My three year old daughter helped me and she thought it was finger licking, bol scraping good!
I ment to rate it 5 big stars!!!
If I wanted to add chia or flax seeds, when should I add them in the process? Before they go in the oven or after and still benefit from them nutritionally?
Thanks!
For most nutritional punch, add them after baking so that the oils aren’t damaged by the heat.
Beth, how do you buy almonds so cheaply?
I usually buy my almonds from the bulk bins at the grocery store – they’re much cheaper there than if you buy a small bag of them from the baking aisle. They’re sold by the pound and those sliced almonds really don’t weigh much, so the total cost is usually pretty low :)
Thanks for the tip. I’ll browse the local markets and see if their almonds are cheaper. I made this recipe today, but mine also over-cooked a bit. Next time, I’ll reduce the heat and time.
Anonymous – I’m sure it would work just fine without the nuts :)
could i omit the almonds and the coconut? i’d love some simple chocolaty-oatmeal without nuts/coconut.
I made this today, added sunflower seeds, cinnamon, a couple tablespoons of chocolate protein powder and made the wet mixture from a little brown sugar, agave, sugar free maple syrup and extra water. It’s amazing!!!!!!!
You never fail to amaze me. This looks delish, I can’t wait to give it a try.
This stuff is amazing. I made it for a Christmas gift and thought I should try it before I gave it as a gift. This could be dangerous! :-) Others talked about burning, so I kept an eye on it, but it didn’t burn after the full 45 min. Key might be making sure it’s a full half inch thick on the edges too? Will definitely be making this again! Thanks for the recipe!
mine didn’t stick that well (subbed oats for coconut)…but it turned the milk into chocolate milk and nothing really matters besides that :]
I just made this and it’s baking in the oven right now.. I did change/add a few things.. I used coconut oil instead of reg oil and I added in 1 tsp of instant espresso powder and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. YUM! can’t wait to have a bowl with some almond milk for dinner! :)
I found there to be too little wet ingredients, so I made a bit extra of the oil/sugar/cocoa/honey mixture. Also, as other people noted, the cooking time was too long! I smelled burning after half an hour so I took it out. The edges were completely charred but the middle part is still delicious :) I will note though that this is the second time this oven has burned something (I am at my student apartment and usually do a ton of baking at home), so perhaps there’s something wonky with it.
Made it with Coconut oil, added raisins and whole almonds… DELISH!!! (45mins was a little too long, I took it out at 35)
Mmm, baked some this afternoon for my boys’ afternoon snack. I’ll reduce time in the oven next time, but there will definitely be a next time!
Ella – absolutely. I wanted to use coconut oil, but opted for vegetable oil because of the price and I know most people would have it in their pantry. :P
Do you think it would work to use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil?
My question is: how do you possibly leave that sit on your counter until it’s cool? This looks dangerous to me. It would likely be devoured way before it was cooled into breakable chunks. Nonetheless, I have almost all of the ingredients and will likley try this week :) Thanks Beth!
In my oven 45 min was too long to bake. Kind of burned.
This looks great, but I would use coconut oil to make it even healthier.
Definitely! Just add some more almonds or another nut of your choice :)
i don’t like coconut. will this recipe work if i omit it? it sounds WONDERFUL otherwise!!