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Just made this and decided to do a half batch because, ‘I don’t need that much granola.’ Oh man, I was wrong! I can’t stop eating it, this stuff is so good.
Kerri Y
ohhhk. I am seriously bursting at the seams.
With joy, I mean. With joy. Granola joy and dog joy.
There are two really happy things going on in my life right now –>
#1 – The dog. We have a dog! We have had our puppy for almost a week now, and she’s not really a puppy, she’s an medium-old-ish dog from a rescue, but I am set on calling her a puppy for at least our first month together. She deserves it AKA we want it AKA who even cares tho because we are so totally in love with her.
A few nights ago we took her to the dog park and it was like heaven on earth for her. But actually, also for us, because we got so much laughter and joy out of seeing her jump in mud puddles, run wild through the sand, and chase her new friends like Jesus the hooded-vest-wearing Chihuahua. I thought it would take us at least a few months to become “those dog people” but oh no, my friends. Two hours into our new life with the pup and we are THERE.
#2 – This chocolate granola. It’s too obvious, but I still have to say it anyways: it’s so good like seriously need more nowwwwww even though I just ate some before I sat down to write this post.
It has a nice healthy base of oats, almonds, and unsweetened coconut flakes, and then things start to get a tiny bit desserty, if you can handle that, with the addition of cocoa powder and maple syrup and coconut oil and chocolate chips melted all up into the clusters. And then? Everything gets sprinkled with that crunchy turbinado sugar and flakes of sea salt.
And then it’s lunchtime and you’re a food blogger with leftover recipes filling your fridge but the only thing you can think of for lunch is fistfuls of granola straight out of the jar. I don’t even know, okay? Just… leave me alone.
Actually though, I’m not even exaggerating when I say that as of this morning, I’ve now eaten The Ultimate Chocolate Granola as 4 of my last 7 meals. It’s not like I’m proud of myself, eating those crunchy chocolate clusters with chocolate chips all day, it’s just that I feel I need to be upfront with you about my deep-seated love for things with crunchy sugar and sea salt exteriors.
If you’re like me and you love those kinds of textural, salty-sweet things, this is your granola.
HOW TO MAKE OUR CHOCOLATE GRANOLA:
The Ultimate Chocolate Granola
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 16 servings – about 1/3 cup each 1x
Description
The Ultimate Chocolate Granola with almonds, oats, coconut flakes, chocolate chips, topped with crunchy sugar and sea salt.
Ingredients
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 1 1/4 cups sliced raw almonds
- 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
- 2/3 cup melted coconut oil (measured in liquid form)
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
- sea salt for finishing
Instructions
- Make: Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Toss the oats, almonds, coconut, cocoa, salt, and 1/3 cup of the sugar in a large bowl. Whisk the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla together. Set aside. Pour the liquids over the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Spread the granola into two large jelly roll pans in an even layer.
- Bake: for 50 minutes total, stopping about halfway through to check the granola and shake or stir the pan if needed. After 50 minutes, sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top of the granola, return to the oven for 5-10 minutes until chocolate chips are very soft. Sprinkle with the remaining turbinado sugar and coarse sea salt to taste. The added sugar and salt should stick the outside of the chocolate chips. *YES*
- Store: Let the granola stand for 1-2 hours. Gently scoop the granola into jars or an airtight container for storing. The advantage of doing this when the chocolate chips are still soft (at the 1-2 hour mark) is that it makes for great texture once it cools – the chocolate chips will sort of melt their way into the clusters and harden within each individual granola cluster. SO GOOD. You can also leave the granola out overnight or for several hours until the chocolate chips are fully cooled and hardened if you want to preserve the shape of the individual chocolate chip pieces in the granola.
Notes
The coarse sea salt and sugar combination is very important for the overall taste and texture of this granola in my opinion, so try to use that crunchy turbinado sugar and coarse sea salt rather than swapping them for other ingredients.
Gentle handling of the granola is key for preserving the clusters. When you remove it from the oven, don’t stir it. If it’s not over browning during baking, don’t stir it. The more you can leave it alone, the more it will cluster.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 50 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: chocolate granola, granola recipe, chocolate dessert
Note: For anyone who might be watching their weight or looking for guidelines with portion control, I find it really helpful to divide this recipe into four jars and then just mentally remind myself that each jar is 4 servings. I don’t measure each time I eat it, but I do try to keep an eye on how much I’m eating based on that rule of thumb. And if I end up eating one jar as three servings instead of four… oh well. Happy times.
A heads up: tomorrow I’m going to do a proper post to introduce our fur baby. (UPDATE: here it is.) I’m sort of INSANELY EXCITED to share her with you, and she’s wagging her tail next to me right now so I think that means she’s ready for her debut as a Blog Dog.
Until then: MORE CHOCOLATE GRANOLA, extra sea salt and crunchy sugar. Please and thank you!
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our easy chocolate desserts page. Check it out!
This granola looks amazing! I love the flavor combo of chocolate and sea salt!
When you are done, is the granola soft or crunchy? The granola I was raised on was soft and I love that. It seems like chocolate granola might be awesome soft. Is the salt noticeable?
As a side note, congrats on the dog! We adopted a German Shepherd when she was 1 years old. A great training book that helped was “Mother Knows Best: The Natural Way to Train your Dog”.
This granola is pretty crunchy, and the salt is VERY noticeable! Because I love salty sweet. But I didn’t list an amount – just add to taste, or do half the batch with salt and half without to see fi you like it. Thanks for the book recommendation!
Cannot wait to see your furbaby! Aw how exciting for you guys! This granola is possibly the chunkiest chocolate granola I’ve ever seen. Please, sign me up!
I recently bought a similar chocolate granola here at Whole Foods and while I’m not normally a big chocolate granola fan, it was so good! I am definitely a big chocolate fan, but something about it being in my granola is weird to me. That being said, the store granola won me over and now I can use this recipe to make it at home! Thanks for sharing!
Pinned and cant wait to try it!
The chocolate granola looks so good! I love granola over yogurt, so I’m putting this on my to-make list!
Need this in my life. Like, yesterday. And congrats on the puppy!!! Any new dog is a puppy. Cannot wait to see pics of her!
We are totally on the same granola wavelength, I’m going to make some with my friend later today! Your granola looks delicious, and good call with the sea salt. This looks incredible!
That seems to be a brilliant combo,love the addition of sea salt here,it sounds easy too
Ooooh, fabulous!!!
This looks like LIFE! My goodness. This looks so good! Must try this!
This granola makes me want to burst with joy too!! Just gorgeous!
Congrats on getting a new addition to your family!
Maria
Wooo! So excited for you guys and your new pup. And yes, dogs will ALWAYS be considered “puppies” in my book ;). And this granola? Out-of-this-world good!
Always! Puppies forever.
Congrats on being dog parents! It’s a lot of work but so much fun. I can’t imagine life without our little cuteness!
1. This granola looks heavenly. C’mon.
2. Now heading into my office kitchen to devour some mediocre Costco sized bag of granola while staring at these pics…
3. I LOVE SAGE! Seriously obsessed with all the Snapchats you were posting this weekend of her. LOVE LOVE LOVE.
Aw, thank you Melissa! She has been such a sweet girl for us and it’s so fun to share her like crazy on SnapChat!
Yum! Gotta try this for mornings we sneak off to the lake for a little fishing. Can’t wait to meet the puppers. Only takes minutes for those little charmers to steal your heart.
OMG!!! Granola heaven!!!!!!!!!
I cannot wait! To see pictures and read all about your girl! Eek! Reading your posts has become a part of my post-workout-while-I-eat-breakfast routine on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so when you post on off days, I usually just read them the next day. But this is how crazy for puppy-ness I’ve been: Every time I got an email from POY this week, I would scroll like crazy through the post to see if there was anything dog-related, and if not, it could wait. <-lol, proof I'm not a foodie right there! But between this granola and the puppy? I couldn't resist! (I guess not having FB or Snapchat probably adds to my frenzy. 😀 ) Tomorrow can't come fast enough! Woohoo! (Forgive my extra weirdness, I get weirder when I'm sick… =S)
That is so funny! I do usually post on MWF but I’ve been changing it up lately! You should get on SnapChat for more dog love! it’s dorky and totally addicting. 🙂
I was going to say. . .what gives. . .no pics of the cute patooty pupsicle. . .then I saw that you planned on doing a full out intro tomorrow. Sigh! I guess I can wait another day for cuteness overload. BTW. . .this granola looks divine and I can see why all other meals have abandoned ship and this is the primary mode of nutrition for the moment.
We! want! puppy pictures!!!!!!
Love, another Minneapolis dog owner 🙂
The granola looks amazing and I have two things I’d like to ask/suggest — do you think if I found dark chocolate chips I could excuse the granola as heart healthy? And I think your puppy should have her own monthly post. I could just see her advising the owners on proper diet — recipes for homemade biscuits. I can just imagine her about picture. What do you think???? I’m sure she has a sense of humor, after all her parents are very funny.
Can’t wait to try the granola and see the new baby!
Congratulations on the new pup!!! I’ve seen pictures on social media and I just can’t, I can’t even with the cuteness overload! Loooove granola and this definitely looks like the ultimate 🙂
Mine are either “the puppies”, “the pups”, or “my boys”… dog just does not do them justice! 😉
Agree!
Unfortunately this is a recipe I just cannot make, since I know that I would have that complete lack of self-control which even no careful jar-portioning would help. The sugar and the salt and the chocolate chips! Mmmm
Yeah. I would call this one BACKSLIDING. But a good Saturday treat nonetheless. 🙂