Chocolate (Nutella) Granola

Cookbook Bites: Chocolate Granola

The other day my friend Jennafer was talking about make-ahead meals. She was making a pasta with prosciutto which sounded really good. I was inspired, but instead of make-ahead "meals" per-say I went with make-ahead breakfast, specifically Chocolate Granola, which I am happy to say was a success!

I kind of rolled with my own thing again, combining recipes, and some of my own ideas (like Nutella--who can resist?) The resulting granola has stayed crunchy and gives you that chocolate milk at the end of your cereal bowl like Cocoa Krispies. All in a days work, right? ;)

Chocolate Granola

1/8 C butter (melted)

3 oz honey (1/2 C very scant - like 1/4 inch from top of the measuring cup)

2 T brown sugar

1 1/2 t vanilla

3 T cocoa powder (nautral not Dutch processed)

1/4 t kosher salt 

1 1/2 T Nutella (1 generous soup spoon - I know, I'm so scientific.)

4 C oats (old fashioned)
1/2 C walnuts (chopped)

Combining the ingredients for the chocolate granola.

Melt the butter in a small pan and add the honey, brown sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder, salt, Nutella and combine over low heat. In a large bowl add the oats and pour the chocolate mixture over the oats and stir well to combine. Chop the walnuts, add to the bowl and combine. Spray a jelly-roll pan (or cookie sheet) with cooking spray and pour the mixture onto it spreading it out a bit to cover the sheet.

Bake at 300 for 30 minutes. Stir about every 5 minutes or so. It's hard to tell when the granola is done, it will be dark cocoa brown and it'll still look wet, but trust me, pull it out at 30 minutes and let it cool. I left mine on the cookie sheet for the afternoon and then put it into a storage container. As it cools it will become dry and crunchy just like magic!

Chocolate Granola is good as a snack (dry), on yogurt, in milk and especially good on Bryers vanilla ice cream. I think I'm a fan!

Go forth and conquer! You can do this! Granola is your friend (and it's way easy to make)!

Recipe Source: Suzanne Nikolaisen

Recipe Research & Inspiration:
This particular recipe is one I came up with after studying how to make granola from other recipes like Mr. Breakfast's Cocoa Granola by TinaNY, Honey Nut Granola by KarenMB, Stove Top Granola by MammaIsCookin (Thanks to my peeps at these links for teaching me how to make Granola!)

Enjoy,

Suzanne
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