Chocolate Walnut Granola

Happy mid-week, all! I had totally intended on having this recipe to you on Monday, but alas, the busy-ness of this thing we call life got in the way! I'm excited for the recipes I have for you this week, and hopefully I can post them all here soon. This first one is probably the easiest, so I thought it'd be the best place to start. :)

I made this granola last week in preparation for my weekend trip to NYC to visit college friends. I wanted to bring something to my gracious hostess, so I whipped up a batch of this granola in no time at all. So easy and tasty!!

The original recipe I followed is that from Lauren's Latest for Chocolate Almond Granola. It's a very easily adaptable recipe, which I love, and that's also why I'm calling my version chocolate walnut granola; I changed up the nut that I used! I decided simply to use what I had on hand already and not make an extra trip to the store to buy new ingredients. So, walnuts it was. :) I also halved the recipe but not exactly halved... The proportions and ingredients I ended up using are listed below.

Ingredients:

-4 cups quick cooking oats

-1 cup chopped walnuts

-1 cup unsweetened coconut

-1/4 cup butter

-1/3 cup maple syrup

-1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:

Mix the oats, walnuts, and coconut in a large bowl. In a small liquid measuring cup, melt the butter in the microwave. Stir in the maple syrup and cocoa powder. Microwave the mixture another 30 seconds or so, or until there aren't any lumps of cocoa left. Stir in the vanilla. Pour the liquid mixture over the oats mixture, and stir well until the mixture is evenly coated. Divide the mixture between two cookie sheets or pans, and bake at 250 degrees for about one hour. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

I decided to put my granola in two pans - one 8 x 8 and one 13 x 9. And remember, this was for half the original recipe. So if you make the original recipe, you may need a few pans or a couple large cookie sheets to fit all the granola.

Yum!

I gave about half of this granola away and kept half for myself. And after only 1 week, I have only about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of my portion left. Whoops! That went fast...

I've been enjoying it with yogurt and fruit mostly. Deeelish.

The only thing I'd do differently next time is add more cocoa powder. The granola had a perfect level of sweetness to it, in my opinion, but I would have liked it to be a bit more chocolate-y. Looking back at the original recipe, Lauren calls for a "heaping" measure of cocoa powder. I guess I didn't do enough of a heaping scoop to make it chocolate-y. Next time! Overall, I was definitely still very pleased with the recipe though. I especially liked how very easy it was to make!

To store the granola, I re-used old plastic peanut butter jars! I washed them in the dishwasher to make sure they were nice and clean, and they were just perfect for storing the granola.

Be back again soon with another delicious recipe. The next one's for dinner!