Dark Chocolate Almond Granola
Can you tell I have been obsessed over making granola lately?
I love the stuff.
I think I have mentioned before, I have mostly stopped buying cereal for breakfasts so granola is about the only cereal-like thing my family eats. I do let them have cereal on Sunday mornings because Sunday mornings are chaos around here and I don’t have time to make breakfast.
The nice thing about not really eating cereal (besides the health benefits) is if you are only buying one box every couple weeks, you can get the expensive organic, some-what good for you stuff and not feel so bad about it.
Granola has always been a staple at our house anyway, but now more than ever.
I decided to make one that was a bit more of a treat than normal, I’m not sure why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Everyone loves it.
It turned out with this nice little crunch that I’m kind of in love with. I tried to keep it mostly pretty healthy, but of course there’s those yummy chocolate chunks and toffee bits that are NOT healthy. But we have to give in once in a while right?
- 6 cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 cup sliced almonds
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 1 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup toffee bits
- ⅔ cup dark chocolate chunks or chips
- 3 tablespoon chia seeds (optional but that's the nice crunch I was talking about - most health food stores with a bulk section carry them)
- Preheat your oven to 300˚ get a rimmed baking sheet out and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the oats and almonds.
- In another small mixing bowl, combine the cocoa powder, honey and vanilla, stir until smooth.
- Pour the cocoa mixture over the oats and use your hands to thoroughly combine, until the oats are evenly coated with the mixture.
- Dump the oat mixture onto the rimmed baking sheet and spread out evenly.
- Place the tray in the oven and set a timer for 10 minutes.
- When the timer goes off, use a spoon or spatula to toss the oat mixture around and spread it around evenly again. Close the oven and set the timer for another 10 minutes. Toss again and set timer for 5 minutes at a time after that, keep tossing and rearranging and keep a close eye on it and once it feels like it's getting fairly dry, remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
- Once cool, add the chocolate, toffee bits and chia seeds and store in an air tight container.
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