This chocolate granola recipe is full of nuts and seeds for good fats, contains no refined sugar, and is beautifully accented with dried cherries and melted chocolate. A healthy-ish, somewhat decadent granola equally at home in a bowl of yogurt, as a breakfast cereal, or layered into an ice cream sundae!
1cuproasted nuts of choicecoarsely chopped (almonds or mixed nuts containing almonds)
`1/2 cup roasted pepitas
½cuproasted sunflower seeds
½cupcoconut sugar
½cupcashew butter or almond butter
½cupsorghum syrupmaple syrup, or honey
¼cupavocado oil
¼cupcocoa powder
1Tablespooncinnamon
2teaspoonsvanilla
½teaspoonalmond extract
½teaspoonsalt
½cupdried tart cherries
2ozfinely chopped dark chocolate
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325F.
In a large bowl, combine the oats, coconut, nuts, pepitas, and sunflower seeds.
In a medium bowl, combine the coconut sugar, nut butter, sorghum syrup, avocado oil, cocoa powder, cinnamon, extracts, and salt. Whisk well. Mixture will be thick. You can heat it for a few seconds in the microwave to thin it out if you'd like.
Stir the wet ingredients into the oat mixture until all is evenly coated. Use your stand mixer to make life a bit easier.
Spread out evenly onto 2 sheet pans lined with either Silpat or parchment paper.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until you can see that the oats have turned golden brown.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle half the cherries and half the finely chopped chocolate over the granola while it's still hot.
Stir each pan very well to distribute the melted chocolate evenly so all the granola is coated with a very thin layer.
Cool completely and then store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.