Baked Chocolate Hemp Granola

This granola is a HUGE hit in my house. It came about when there was an “OMG THERE’S NO GRANOLA” moment one morning. I tend to make more raw granola (like this Apple Cinnamon Grawnola), but when it’s already breakfast time, grawnola is not an option since it needs to dehydrate for a good 24 hours. So I came up with this simple and delicious recipe instead.

This recipe uses hemp butter and a little peanut butter, but really you could use any nut butter you like. Obviously it would affect the flavour, but I literally can’t think of a nut butter that wouldn’t work in this recipe! You could even give it a go with seed butter if you don’t do nuts.

If you’ve used any of my other recipes, you may know that I don’t like to make things too sweet and this granola is no exception. It is plenty sweet enough for me, but if you are used to the super sweet shop-bought granola, you may want to up the maple syrup just a little. That said, I think it’s perfect as it is ;)

My favourite way to eat this granola is with a big bowl of fruit and some oat milk blended with hemp seeds and a banana. This makes for the most decadent and creamy milk you could ever imagine! Alternatively I love a little bowl of this granola to nibble when I fancy a sweet treat during the day!

The process is very straight forward. We combine various flakes, seeds, nuts and raisins in a mixing bowl and then make a gorgeous sweet chocolate paste in the blender. We then simply mix everything together and throw it in the oven. Simple as that.

As far as I’m concerned, good granola must have clumps. Chunky, crispy clusters. The key to achieving this is to just not mess with the granola too much while it’s cooking. Around halfway through the baking time, you’ll need to “disturb” the granola gently with a spatula to stop it sticking to your pan, but just a little prod is all I ever do. If you start shaking everything up and trying to flip it and this and that, you’ll break the granola up to much and there’ll be no clumps! Horror! Also, do not touch the granola as it cools in the pan. You’ll want to. But don’t. Because these are the magic moments when the granola becomes it’s true delicious, crunchy self.

I chose to use hemp butter in this recipe because I love hemp and let me tell you why. Hemp is so good for you. It’s brain food and can help to relieve stress. Hemp seeds are a great source of essential fatty acids like omega 3 meaning they can help to improve your mood and fight depression! Studies have shown that hemp seeds have antioxidant effects meaning they can protect your brain (thanks hemp!) They’re also a treasure trove of other vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Hemp has also been shown to reduce inflammation, improve skin conditions and boost heart health. It’s also packed full of vitamins, minerals and important nutrients like protein. Hemp is also extremely sustainable, compared to other seeds. All in all, hemp is a winner.

You can either buy hemp butter ready made or you can make it the same way you would make any nut or seed butter, by blending it for a while in a high speed blender, scraping down the sides regularly until butter develops.

The dry ingredients in the recipe are the ones I like to use, but you could absolutely switch things up depending on what you have in your cupboards. Try to swap like for like in terms of seeds, grains or dried fruit and keep the quantities the same and you should be good.

Ingredients

For the wet mixture

2 tablespoons ground flax

4 tablespoons water

1/4 cup hemp butter (or sub nut butter of choice)

1 tablespoon peanut butter

3 tablespoons cocoa or cacao

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup maple syrup (or a couple of tablespoons more if you like things sweeeeeet)

1 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

Good pinch of sea salt

For The Dry Mixture

1 + 1/2 cups whole rolled oats (certified gluten free if necessary)

1/2 cup spelt flakes (or sub more oats if gluten free)

3/4 cup puffed brown rice

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup desiccated coconut

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup chia seeds

1/4 cup cacao nibs

Method

Preheat your oven to 180°C (Fan 160°C)/156°F/Gas mark 4 and prepare two baking or roasting trays.

Make some flax egg by combining the ground flaxmeal and water in a small bowl. Mix well and set aside for at least 5 minutes, until gloopy.

Combine all the ingredients listed for the dry mixture in a large mixing bowl and give them a mix.

Add all of the ingredients listed for the wet mixture to a blender (I like to use my nutribullet for this as it is not a large quantity) and blend until you have a deliciously tempting, smooth chocolatey mixture.

Pour the wet mixture into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients and really mix well until everything is covered in the chocolate mix and there are no dry bits.

Put the mixture into your baking trays and keep it nice and chunky (See photo above of granola in the tray for reference).

Bake for 28-30 mins in total, but remove the trays halfway through baking to gently move the granola. As mentioned above, if you want to keep lovely chunky clusters, use a metal spatula and carefully get under the granola just enough to move it slightly so it’s no longer stuck to the tray. If you disturb the granola too much, you’ll lose your clusters.

When you take the granola out of the oven, don’t touch it until it has completely cooled. This is when it will really crisp up. Also, interestingly the sweetness and full flavour will only come through once the granola is crisp and cool.

Store in an airtight container once cool. I suggest pudding a padlock on the container because this stuff is moreish!!