Current passion in the culinary world: granolas.

The chunky, crumbly homemade granolas that are sold in bags or sprinkled on yogurt parfaits at local hipster cafes…served along with  piping hot Americanos and lattes with hearts drawn in the foam. 

These places are my favorite places.

 I’ve been making this cocoa-almond granola over an over in the past couple of weeks. 

Once I get hooked on something, I can’t stop until I get it right. Until I feel good enough about it to package it up and give it to others.

It is based off of a cocoa-almond granola by Joy the Baker.  I read about her recipe over a year ago. This summer, over a year later, I finally got around to tweaking her recipe and making it my own.

I don’t usually add sugars and oils to my granola. But this is a necessary exception. 

I also use coconut oil to tie in with the coconut flakes. 

I love coconut oil for so many reasons: for baking, for cooking, for moisturizing…you can slather it all over yourself after you shower as lotion. It sounds so weird and so wrong. which is exactly why I love it.

When granola is a little sweet and sugary like this one, it is great to enjoy plain, all on its own.  

This is a fun one. 

Cocoa-Coconut Almond Granola

• 4 1/2 cups oats (I use Rob’s mill gluten-free quick cooking oats)
• 1 cup shredded coconut or coconut flakes (I like organic unsweetened coconut flakes if I find it in stores)
• 1 cup raw almonds, whole
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¼ cup honey
• 1/3 cup coconut oil (vegetable oil works too)
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

- preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- In a large bowl, toss oats, almonds, coconut, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and salt. set aside.

- In a saucepan or in the microwave, combine sugar, honey, oil, butter and stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and it begins to bubble.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

- Pour the warm mixture over the oat mixture and toss with a spoon until it is all coated and the bits are moistened.  Spoon the mixture on a baking sheet. 

- Bake for about 30 minutes.  Let cool and then break up and store in an airtight container at room temperature, for about 2 weeks.

it’s okay if you pick out the chunks first.

that’s the best part.