Choc Chip Granola/ A HC Recipe

No early morning work meeting is complete without a buffet of breakfast foods and what breakfast buffet doesn’t involve some home made granola (and 10 croissants, 8 pain au chocolat, a whole tub of yoghurt and too many strawberries…)? This may be the time to point out we’re only a team of  7.

I am providing the granola, as I’m trying out the recipe from our cook book. I’ve made quite a few varieties of chocolate granola in the past, one of which is already on here and it involved some salty/ roasted peanuts and it was made completely with a 70% dark chocolate. It tasted great but it’s chocolate overload and may not to be to everyone’s taste. I didn’t want a repeat of chocolate overload this time, we eat enough of it as it is, so I altered the recipe slightly by cutting out the cocoa powder and using a high-cocoa milk chocolate and a 40% one too. Totally for the best.

This is my second batch since Saturday, and my chocolate supply is dwindling despite only topping it up LAST WEEK, so I’m having to mix it up again. Which is fine, perfectly fine, it’s all about using what you’ve got available. So this time my chocolate chippies have come in the form of a 100% dark Saint Lucian, which isn’t as scary as it sounds. Our Saint Lucia Island Growers is quite a clean tasting chocolate, what I mean by ‘clean’ is that it’s grassy and to me personally tastes a bit herbal. Obviously everyone’s tastes are different, but HC point out some olive oil/ peppery notes too. I will tell anyone, I am not Island Growers biggest fan but it works nicely against the oat-y texture and all of those nuggets of nuts and seeds and is, in fact, my favourite attempt yet.

You don’t have to use anything near a 100% if you don’t wish, I admit it is quite adventurous and it’s not to everyone’s palette. Like I said previously, I used a Peru 75% milk and a 40% milk last time and that just as lovely so it’s completely up to you!

MAKES 900G

• 400g jumbo oats
• 115g oat bran
• 115g light muscovado sugar (I use half of this)
• 115g mixed unsalted nuts, I used walnuts, cashews and peanuts
• 70g roasted cocoa nibs, or dark chocolate/ high cocoa-milk
• 85g sunflower seeds
• 150ml oil
• 150ml water
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, OPTIONAL/ I didn’t use any
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 200g dark chocolate/ high-cocoa milk, peanut sized

1) Preheat oven to 200C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

2) In a large bowl, combine oats, oat bran, sugar, nuts, nibs or chocolate, and sunflower seeds in a bowl until thoroughly mixed.

3) In another bowl, mix together the oil, water, cocoa powder (if using), vanilla and salt and then pour this over the dry mixture. Stir and make sure everything is coated well.

4) Arrange onto the tray in a single layer and bake for 15 minutes. Give it a stir and turn, and bake for a further 15 minutes.

5) Leave to cool completely and then stir in the 200g of chocolate chunks. It’ll last in an air-tight container for about a week.