salted chocolate & almond granola
Recipe Tuesday | the rediscovery of a long-forgotten joy
I can’t say that chocolate cereal has appealed to me for a very long time - I suppose as a child I liked cocoa pops, and the way the milk would turn chocolately, especially if you got the creamy part at the top of a glass bottle of milk freshly delivered by the milkman. That said, I don’t eat a huge amount of cereal in general these days, it being very difficult for me to find a cereal that isn’t packed with added sugar and other random additives, or that isn’t exorbitantly expensive, in any of my local shops. But a bag of shop-bought chocolate granola had been hanging around in my kitchen for a while, it having been donated to the communal supply by a departing housemate, and when I decided to try it one morning I was pleasantly surprised. Although as with most mass produced cereals it was a little sweet for my taste, I liked it overall and thought it couldn’t be hard to make a tasty homemade version. After all I already make granola on a semi-regular basis, and sometimes it’s nice to have a cereal on hand for a quick and tasty breakfast.
So on Saturday morning I gave it a go. I love weekend mornings (especially now that I am not having to go for long training runs) because I am a lone early riser, so the house is still and quiet and I have the kitchen to myself as everyone else sleeps. I made myself a coffee and set to in the early morning light, tweaking my regular granola recipe to include cocoa powder, and adding some roughly chopped dark chocolate at the end when everything had cooled. For the nuts I stuck to almonds as I like the chocolate and almond combo, but there’s no reason other nuts wouldn’t taste just as nice. I made a small batch just in case I didn’t love it, but I needn’t have worried, as it is now up there as a favourite weekend breakfast, alongside almond croissants from my local vegan bakery. I had forgotten the joy of watching the milk turn chocolately, and raising the bowl to your lips to drink it down at the end. The rediscovery of a simple but long-forgotten pleasure, in a quiet kitchen on a still Saturday morning, is a joy in itself.
Ingredients
2 cups oats
1 cup raw almonds
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup almond butter
1/2 tsp sea salt flakes
1/2 cup roughly chopped dark chocolate (I used 70%)
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees C (fan).
In a large bowl, stir together the oats and almonds.
In a separate bowl or jug, stir together the almond butter, maple syrup, cocoa powder and sea salt. Stir until the mixture is smooth and well combined, then pour it over the oat mix. Stir well until all the oats and almonds are covered with the almond butter mixture.
Transfer the granola to a large baking sheet, spreading it out evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until toasted and fragrant but not burning. Leave the mixture untouched on the baking sheet until cool.
Once cool, stir in the chopped chocolate, then transfer the granola into an air-tight container.
Currently…
Reading: Venetia by Georgette Heyer (spring always puts me in the mood for Regency-era novels, somehow)
Eating: this simple lentil dhal with wild rice
Enjoying: quite a lot of hot chocolate currently, as it’s turned cooler again, and my local coffee shop makes a deliciously rich & creamy vegan hot chocolate.