Chocolate Granola: Dark, Delicious and Dangerous
Chocolate for breakfast? Why not? This dark and delicious homemade chocolate granola is really quite healthy. Oats, berries, nuts and seeds are covered in dark melted chocolate and date syrup, then toasted. Real dark chocolate chunks are also included. The only refined sugar is the small amount in the dark chocolate and the darker you have it, the less sugar there will be.
This chocolate granola is most definitely dark and delicious. It’s only dangerous, however, if you eat the lot in one go. Even healthy granola should only be eaten in moderation. Forty to fifty grams per serving is enough. This is what I tell myself, anyway.
Chocolate for Breakfast?
Ever since I first tried Dorset Cereal’s chocolate granola, I knew I had to make my own healthier version. It took me a while to get over the shock of having chocolate for breakfast. And it took a Fairtrade breakfast challenge to finally get me going.
The French are rather ahead of us on this front. Hot chocolate and pain au chocolat are normal breakfast fare in France. And in Spain they dip churros in chocolate sauce. I expect Italy has its own chocolate breakfast tradition, but I’m not sure what it is.
Have you ever had chocolate for breakfast? What’s your go to?
Homemade Chocolate Granola
I bought a bar of Divine’s fairtrade 85% dark chocolate specifically for the purpose of the breakfast challenge. When I started to look at recipes however, all I could see was cocoa powder. Well blow that, I thought, mine was going to contain a bar of real live chocolate. So, as usual, I did my own thing.
As this chocolate granola is for breakfast I need it to be healthy and to me healthy means NO SUGAR. So instead of using refined sugar, I used a mixture of date syrup, agave syrup and honey. OK, I know chocolate has sugar in it, but there’s very little in an 85% bar, so I let that one go. A dark rich bar like this not only decreases the sugar levels but it increases the chocolate intensity too.
Although I sometimes use all date syrup instead of half and half, the agave syrup gives a lighter touch.
Basically, you mix all of the ingredients together, bar some of the chocolate then toast it in the oven. It’s ever so easy to make.
It’s nice to have actual chunks of chocolate as well as having all the other ingredients coated in it. To do this, chop half of the chocolate and add it soon after the granola comes out of the oven. If you get it right, the chocolate melts a little and clumps together with the granola mixture. But you don’t want the mixture so hot that it melts completely.
The aroma of chocolate, coconut and roasting seeds emanating from the kitchen whilst the granola cooks is mouthwatering. I defy you not to dive in the second it’s out of the oven.
Of course, I can rarely wait until breakfast the next day to tuck in, so out comes my bowl, spoon and milk and in goes the granola. It’s delicious and not too sweet; crunchy with the kind of texture which encourages you to chew and enjoy the diverse flavours. It rarely lasts as long as I want it to.
Vegan Chocolate Granola
For a vegan version follow the recipe, but use maple syrup or vegan honey instead of actual honey. The only other thing you need to check is that the chocolate you use is certified vegan. Many bars of dark chocolate may have traces of dairy in them.
Other Chocolate Breakfast Recipes You Might Like
- Chocolate porridge
- Hot chocolate (vegan)
- Nutella French toast
- Raw chocolate avocado smoothie (vegan)
- Smoked chilli energy bars
- Spiced kefir pancakes with manuka honey chocolate sauce
Or for even more ideas from other recipe websites, head over to my chocolate breakfast recipes post.
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this chocolate granola, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more breakfast recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
Chocolate Granola. PIN IT.
Chocolate Granola – The Recipe
Homemade Chocolate Granola
Ingredients
- 250 g rolled oats (porridge oats)
- 30 g sesame seeds
- 20 g sunflower seeds
- 60 g apricot kernels or small almonds
- 30 g goji berries or raisins
- 50 g coconut chips
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp fleur de sel (sea salt)
- 40 ml date syrup agave syrup or honey (approx 2 tbsp)
- 50 ml rapeseed oil or coconut oil (walnut infused rapeseed oil is good if you can get it)
- 100 g dark chocolate chopped into small chunks (I used 85%)
Instructions
- Put the oats into a large bowl.
- Add the nuts, seeds, chips, berries, spice and salt and give everything a good stir.
- Warm the syrup or honey and oil in a medium sized pan.
- Add 50g of the chocolate and stir until melted.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until everything is evenly coated.
- Spread onto a large oiled baking tray and bake for 45 minutes at 125℃ (95℃ fan, 275℉, Gas ½), turning the mixture a couple of times during the process.
- Leave to cool a little, then stir in the remaining chocolate, so it melts just enough to clump together with the granola mixture.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
The spur I needed to finally come up with a recipe for chocolate granola came in the form of this month’s Breakfast Club challenge. Hosted by Fuss Free Flavours, the theme is Fairtrade. Now I know fairtrade is not all about chocolate, but chocolate was one of the very first things to be given the fairtrade label and it is this glorious substance I most associate with it.
Hi, it needs 7g of dark chocolate but could I substitute it with the cocoa powder each serving ? If so, how many grams of the cocoa powder then ? Thank you.
Hi Janice. If you want to use cocoa instead of chocolate, you’ll need to use three parts cocoa and 1 part oil to compensate for the cocoa butter in the chocolate. So for the full 100g in the recipe, it would be 75g of cocoa powder and 25g of oil. It will be slightly less sweet too, so you might want to add a bit more sweetener to compensate. Hope that helps.
I adore making my own granola but I’ve never made a chocolate version before, the recipe instructions are super easy to follow so I think I’ll get my kids involved in making this too so they can do it themselves in future.
Good idea Rebecca. I made some for Easter this year so we could have chocolate for breakfast.
Looks like the best possible thing you can possibly do to granola to me. I’m also obsessed with goji berries so they are a great addition too!
Somehow I can’t get my head around you being obsessed with goji berries Chloe.
Sounds delicious! I love the flavours you’ve used. Who wouldn’t want chocolate for breakfast?!
Possibly anyone who’s consumed one too many chocolate eggs over Easter. Just thinking about a friend!!!
This looks so decadent and delicious!
A batch has just emerged from the oven. In time for Easter – yay!
Chocolate for breakfast! Count me in! I love this idea of incorporating chocolate into breakfast granola and I think it would be delicious with a Greek Yogurt.
Oh yes indeed, yoghurt all the way for sure Magdalena.
I quite often skip breakfast but if it looked like this I’d be happy to tuck in
I’ve been following the 16:8 fast for a while now, which means I rarely get breakfast these days. But I’m going to make an exception this Easter and have some of this.
This is such a gorgeous idea – I’ve added dark chocolate chips to homemade granola before, but your recipe with berries and seeds all covered in melted chocolate just sounds totally delicious! Yum.
Yes, it’s a double chocolate whammy. Just right for a special breakfast.
What a fantastic idea! I love granola and this is a really special mixture, that I know I would love.
Thanks Janice. I shall be making up a batch tomorrow so we can have chocolate for Easter breakfast.
What a great idea – I love granola in all forms and this looks delicious. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you Jo. It’s nice to ring the breakfast changes.
My boys when they were little thought chocolate breakfast cereal was seen as one of the biggest treats ever as I so rarely let them have it. Now i love the idea of this healthier chocolate breakfast and Im sure they would too even though they are grown up now!
Oh I know how they felt. I wasn’t allowed sugary breakfast cereals at all, let alone chocolate ones. Except once in a blue moon my mum got me a pack of mini cereal boxes which always included some cocoa pops – heaven indeed!
What a winning combination! I love it. I can’t wait to whip up some to enjoy.
It’s hard to go wrong with a healthy chocolate granola for breakfast.
Love a chocolate granola and chocolate is absolutely good for breakfast in my world. It’s good for you… Right?
Not sure about goji berries… It’s something I still can’t find a way to like. But I’ll throw everything else in for sure xx
It’s absolutely good for you Kate!!! And if you can’t get on with goji berries, there are plenty of other healthy ones to choose from.
CHOCOLATE for breakfast? Yes please! Lovely to see you back in the chocolate and cocoa seat again! Love the look of this granola, and I think my B and B guests would love it. Thanks for hosting this week on #CookBlogShare 🙂 Karen
I expect your B & B guests love whatever you give them Karen. But a bowl of homemade chocolate granola would be a lovely extra.
This sounds and looks wonderful, Choclette – I love that you took out the refined sugar and used real chocolate stead of the powdered stuff. This would beat cocoa pebbles any day 😉
Thanks JW. I do try and eat healthily, especially at breakfast, makes me feel more able to indulge in cake! Whatever are cocoa pebbles?
What an absolutely wonderful idea – A lovely treat for a lazy weekend breakfast… or for a Jubilee celebratory breakfast!
Kate, I’m all for lazy and / or celebratory breakfasts. Sadly mine usually consists of a piece of toast taken on the run 🙁
I absolutely love granola and this is so so good!
Alida, it’s so easy to make, I don’t really understand why I’ve never done it before!
I like the sound of this for breakfast (minus the coconut). My mum’s been making granola bars for breakfast and snacks so I’ll send her this recipe too as I’m sure she will love it.
I keep forgetting you don’t like coconut Ros. But at least it can be easily left out of the granola – that’s what’s so nice about these sorts of recipes, you can add or omit whatever you like. Would love to know if your mum ever gets around to making it.
Oh delicious. This sounds so good!
Yes, it’s one of those things that once made, it’s hard to forget about – oh dear!
You know Chocolate…I was just thinking about adding chocolate to porridge oats the other morning…I didn’t get around to doing it but this has really encouraged me to have a go. It looks yummy.
Deb
Hehe, chocolate porridge is my go to chocolate fix when I have nothing much in the house and get that chocolate craving. I add dark chocolate to porridge at the end of it’s cooking time – rich and delicious. But perhaps a bit too much so for breakfast.
De-licious! I’m not sure I’d eat this for breakfast but would love it as a dessert, crumbled over ice cream or yoghurt with fresh berries or chopped banana. Yum!
Littleloaf, I’m not really into sweet for breakfast and am with you – it makes a great dessert or addition to a dessert.
oooh delicious. I am currently eating a cacao granola from the Food doctor that is delicious and was just thinking I should make it at home so thanks for this!
Thanks WLM. I haven’t tried anything from the Food Doctor – great name.
This looks seriously good…and it’s also a good excuse to eat chocolate for breakfast!!! 🙂
Exactly my thoughts Laura 🙂
Oh that does sound rather nice indeed!!I’m almost dribbling thinking about it…
GD, I’d rather you didn’t dribble 🙁
I like granola but I’ve never had a chocolate version – talk about raising the bar!
Only for very special occasions though CC 😉
Sounds like a delicious decadent treat to me! I haven’t tried any refined sugar alternatives such as date syrup yet, but keep meaning to. My brother’s favourite cereal (for a treat) used to be M&S triple choc crunch! Yours looks better though!
The trouble with sugar alternatives is that few of them are any good for cakes. I do use Rapadura sometimes though which is good – it’s just very expensive. Dorset Cereals is the only chocolate cereal I’ve tried, but triple choc crunch sounds good to me 😉
I don’t think I have ever had a chocolate muesli but this makes me thing I might like one – even just adding chocolate at the end sounds luxurious
It’s the sort of thing you’ve got to try at least once, but you’re right is is luxurious and is a special treat sort of breakfast.
I love the Dorset Cereals chocolate granola, but can’t eat anything that calorific regularly. Your version sounds a delicious treat, but I don’t really think you can call it sugar-free. Date syrup, agave syrup and honey still contain sugars – just not refined sucrose!
Mine’s less sweet than the Dorset Cereals version Suelle and next time I make it I’ll use even less sweetener. You are of course technically right, but I was talking about what most people think of as sugar, ie cane or beet sugar.
Looks fabulous. I’ve made cocoa granola once, but never thought to attempt it with real chocolate – so much better! Love all the add ins you had, super healthy. Mmmmm
Thanks Katie, it did feel rather luxurious making it with chocolate.
oh my… I can totally imagine the smell of your kitchen… my mouth is watering… I love granola and this just looks amazing… imagine it with raspberries and yoghurt… divine!
Dom you are so right – again! Know I need to find myself some raspberries before it’s all gone.
Looks gorgeous! I’m due to make another batch and nice tip with using sugar free. I’ve jut started baking with sugar free so excited to see how it turns out!
Thanks for the inspiration Carolanne. Hope your sugar free version turns out well.