Nutritionists do their best to spread one of their favorite mantras to start the day with a balanced breakfast and never leave the house with an empty stomach. It just doesn’t work for me. I’m rarely hungry in the early morning and I don’t see the necessity to force myself to eat when I’d rather not. Weekends excluded, they are a whole different chapter: after a stroll over the local market I can’t wait to scramble some fresh eggs and devor a brioche with homemade jam. Yet, if – against all odds – hunger does strike before lunchtime during the week, homemade chocolate crunch granola is my rescue!
This recipe for chocolate crunch granola is from my latest cookbook and it’s been one of my favorite food-gifts for friends over the last years: it requires only a few minutes active work, puts every store-bought chocolate granola to shame and is so highly addictive, that we even started to have it with ice cream. Oh, and in the event you have a thing for those little clusters in your granola, those which a lot of granola recipes promise and only very few actually deliver? Yes, they are in there and plenty so! When mixing dry and liquid ingredients, you even get to decide about the cluster size, just break them apart how you like them best – the granolarity is up to you.
This recipe is also featured on Valentinas Kochbuch, alongside a comprehensive interview with Coco & truly yours about the work on Geschenkideen aus der Küche (in German language).
Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Line a baking sheet (preferably with extra high rim) with parchment paper, so that the parchment paper overlaps the rim. Chop the chocolate.
Add 125 ml water and sugar into a small pot and bring to a boil until the sugar has dissolved, then remove from heat. Stir in oil, maple syrup and lastly the chopped chocolate until well blended.
Mix the remaining ingredients together in a huge (!) bowl, then pour the liquid chocolate syrup over it. Stir well (either with a large spoon or with your hands) and make sure all oats are well covered with the dark syrup. Break down larger clusters to your liking. Spread evenly onto the prepared baking sheet and bake in the middle of the oven for 30 to 40 minutes (to make sure that the granola bakes evenly, take out the sheet every 10 minutes and stir).
Take it out of the oven as soon as the granola is baked through and let cool completely on the baking sheet – it develops its crunchiness as it cools. Serve with milk, yogurt or even ice cream and some fruit. Keeps in an airtight container for weeks.
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