Granola is something of a pantry staple in our home, with R.R.M. swooping it onto his yogurt at breakfast, whilst I can be found munching my way through jars any time of the day. We usually order our fix from the very many fantastic home-bakers and organic start-ups in the city, but with the lockdown rekindling the baker in me – I recently had a gander at stirring up a batch of sea salt and dark chocolate nutty granola at home, inspired by my favourite flavours and ingredients.
The result is deliciously dark-chocolatey, with woody cacao flavours textured with the nuttiness of almonds, hints of coconut and speckles of sea salt. As most recipes from a #QuarantineKitchen go these days – this one also makes use of a spotty, overripe banana – albeit to add a natural sweetness, rather than impart an overwhelming flavour.
I’ve used just a bit of jaggery to bind it all together with unrefined sugar. If you’d like your batch a few notches sweeter or you don’t have jaggery lying around, you could always swap it for honey or maple syrup. Speaking of which, feel free to swap around other ingredients too as you fancy, from tossing in other nuts or seeds, to swooping in a few scoops of your favourite nut butters.
Just don’t miss out on the very last step – sprinkling over a handful of dark chocolate chips (or roughly chopped chocolate) over the granola, once it’s out of the oven – perfectly crisp and crunchy. The final addition is the most important – gloriously melting over your granola to give it a glossy, chocolatey finish!
Sea Salt & Dark Chocolate Nutty Granola
Ingredients
- 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 – 1½ cups whole almonds (or other nuts of your choice)
- ⅓ cup shredded or desiccated coconut (optional)
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- ⅓ cup maple syrup/ jaggery syrup
- ⅓ cup olive oil (can sub with coconut oil)
- 1 large ripe banana (optional; if leaving it out, increase your sweetener by a couple of tablespoons)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- ⅓ cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and line a large baking tray with baking parchment.
- Mix together the oats, almonds, cocoa powder, shredded coconut, sea salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.
- Mash the banana and stir in the jaggery/ maple syrup and olive oil.
- Pour this wet mixture over the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl; and mix it all together well, using your hands if necessary to combine.
- Evenly spread the mixture onto the tray and pop it in to bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until the granola has cooked to a delicious golden brown. You may want to stir the mixture halfway through, to ensure that the granola is evenly baking through.
- Once removed from the oven, let the granola cool slightly (for a few minutes or so) before sprinkling over with chocolate chips. Watch as they melt over the clusters, dialling up the decadence by a few chocolatey notches!
- Transfer to an air-tight container once completely cool. While it should keep for a few weeks, in our home we’re down to the last crumbs in a matter of days!
We’d love to hear from you! Do let us know if you try this recipe – you can leave a comment below and/ or tag us in your delicious creations on Instagram @the_foodiediaries.
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