Back on the homemade granola wagon!  We had been buying some boxed stuff, and I had received granola from Attune (which I can’t get locally…booo).  I was enamored of the little chips in the Attune granola and wanted to try to recreate this at home.  One thing that I don’t like about granolas, though, is that any chips fall to the bottom and it is hard to keep it evenly mixed.  I came up with a good solution.

Here is Almond Joy Granola:

Ingredients:

The dry:

• 3 cups of rolled oats
• 1/4 cup of unsweetened coconut (you can use sweetened)
• 1/2 cup of sliced almonds
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/3 cup of mini chocolate chips

The wet:

• 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (could use any oil, coconut just adds awesome flavor)
• 1 tablespoon of water
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 1/3 cup of light honey (or use corn syrup)
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, coconut, almonds, and cinnamon.

In a small bowl, mix the water, coconut oil, brown sugar, honey, salt, and cocoa powder.  Heat this a little in the microwave if your coconut oil is solid.

Add the wet to the dry.

Just keep mixing and mashing to coat all the ingredients.

Spread the mixture out onto a baking sheet.  I lined mine with a silicone mat, but you probably don’t need to do this.

Bake at 300 degrees F for 30 minutes, stirring the granola every 10 minutes.

Pull the granola out of the oven and smooth it out in a single layer.  Then sprinkle the mini chocolate chips over the granola evenly while it is still warm.

The trick. After several minutes, fold the granola with a spatula to distribute the melted chocolate chips.  Just gently, you don’t have to really stir it up.  This will stick chunks of granola together.

Let cool thoroughly until the chocolate has had a chance to harden up.  It will give you clumps of granola with bits of chocolate.

Delicious!  The granola itself is very lightly sweet.  The chips are what make the granola.  It got a thumbs up from John!

Entire batch of granola:
Calories 2,396.0
Total Fat 68.1 g
Total Carbohydrate 348.8 g
Dietary Fiber 31.8 g
Sugars 170.9 g
Protein 39.5 g

I would have to sit down and really measure, but it is probably fairly typical granola at about 200 calories per 1/2 cup.

This granola has a nice chocolatey flavor and 5 grams of protein per 1/2 cup!  I used whey protein powder for this. If you use a soy, you might need a little more liquid.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Rice Krispies
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup (25 g) sliced almonds
• 4 tablespoons of coconut
• 2 tablespoons of apple juice concentrate
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 2 -3 tablespoons of water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 2 tsp of oil
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder (10 g)
• 1 scoop (34 g) chocolate protein powder

Preheat oven to 325 F.  Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray or use a silpat liner.

In a large bowl, combine the Rice Krispies, oats, coconut, and almonds.

In a small bowl, mix together the the apple juice concentrate, 2 tablespoons of the water, honey, brown sugar, oil, and vanilla and mix well.  Stir in the protein powder and cocoa powder.  Mix really well to get out as many lumps as you can.  If the mixture seems too thick, add the extra tablespoon of water.  This mixture will be syrupy – like this:

Pour over the oat mixture.  I found it easier to mix this with my hands.  You can use a spoon or spatula, but you will crush the Rice Krispies too much.  Best to get your hands dirty 😀

Once thoroughly mixed, spread onto the prepared cookie sheet evenly.  Bake for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so and breaking up large pieces of the granola.  When baking granolas, remember that they aren’t crispy when they come right out of the oven, but still somewhat soft.  As it cools, it gets crispy, so you don’t want to over bake it.

Let cool and enjoy!

Stats using my whey protein powder (120 cal per scoop and 25 g of protien)

Per ounce of granola:

120 calories, 3.2 grams of fat, 21 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, 5 grams of protein.

As promised, here is the recipe for my chai spice granola!  Again, this is lightly sweet.  I added Rice Krispies to this to help bulk up the granola without adding a lot of calories.  It stretches the portion size out that way.  That said, I do not have nutritionals on this yet 😀

All of the spice gives this a nice flavor.  You could try adding some black pepper, too, like would be in chai.  I was going to, but forgot.

* 2 tbsp of brown sugar
* 2 tbsp apple juice concentrate
* 2 tbsp water
* 2 tsp oil
* 2 tsp honey
* 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
* 1/2 tsp ground clove
* 1/2 tsp cardamom

* 2 cups rolled oats
* 1 cup rice krispies
* 1/4 cup slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 325 F. Mix together everything but the last 3 ingredients in a large bow. Add the rest and mix really well until all coated.

Spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 325 for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  Remember that granolas crisp up once they are cooled, not in the oven, so don’t burn it!

Let cool and store in an airtight container.

You may also like:

Cranapple Spice Granola

Or Choco-protein Granola