Almond Joy Granola - Easy Recipe
Granola is very versatile. You can eat it as a cereal with milk of your choice. Grab a handful as a quick "pick me up" snack. Or sprinkle it over your plain Greek yogurt. It's GREAT in any of those choices.
Granola isn't hard to make either. Plus, once you do, store it in an airtight container and you can keep it up to 3 weeks, ( if it doesn't get eaten before then that is) .
Oats are among the healthiest grains on earth.They're a gluten-free whole grain and a great source of important vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants. Oats and oatmeal have many health benefits, which include weight loss, lower blood sugar levels and a reduced risk of heart disease.
Almonds (raw) have some wonderful health benefits. They contain lots of healthy fats (high in omega-3 fatty acids, which protect the heart and the arteries) fiber, protein, magnesium and vitamin E. They can assist in lowering blood sugar levels, reduce blood pressure and lower cholesterol levels. They can also reduce hunger and promote weight loss.
Coconut oil is high in healthy saturated fats that have different effects than most other fats in your diet. These fats can boost fat burning and provide your body and brain with quick energy. They also raise the good HDL cholesterol in your blood, which is linked to reduced heart disease risk.
We've talked about dark chocolate in some of our past recipes. A quick reminder though, dark chocolate ( at least 70-80% cocoa ) is one of the best sources of antioxidants on the planet. Also, it contains a decent amount of soluble fiber and is loaded with minerals.
Now that we know how healthy these ingredients are, let's put them together, Coconut, Almonds and Chocolate. Does that remind you of anything in particular? An Almond Joy bar maybe?
Let's get it made!
- 2 1/2c./ 240g. Rolled Oats
- 1c./65g. Coconut flakes
- 1c./150g. Raw Almonds
- 1/4 t. Salt
- 1/4c./55g. Coconut Oil
- 1/4c./55g. Almond Butter
- 1/3c./80ml Maple Syrup (or Agave)
- 1/3c./60g. (dairy free) Dark Chocolate
The first thing you will want to do is preheat your oven to 340 degrees Fahrenheit (171 Celsius ).
In a mixing bowl, place your dry ingredients, Oats, Coconut flakes, Almonds and Salt.
Mix it up well and set this aside.
In a small sauce pan, heat your Coconut oil, Maple syrup and Almond butter together. Just enough so you can stir it all up and it becomes smooth. This only takes a few minutes on medium to low heat.
Now you can pour this over your dry ingredients and mix until everything is coated.
Get your cookie sheet or pan out, no need to put any oil since there is enough in this recipe. Carefully spread the mixture evenly onto your pan/sheet.
It's time to bake it in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
At 10 minutes, we gave it a careful stir while still in the oven.
After about 22 minutes, ours was golden brown! (you don't want to burn the coconut by baking it to long) We removed it from the oven and let it cool on the countertop.
Just look at how golden and delicious it looks! We wish you could smell it right now.
While this is cooling down, you can coarsely chop your chocolate (either chips or bar).
Once your granola is cooled enough not to melt the chocolate, go ahead and mix it in. Place your Almond Joy Granola into an airtight container and enjoy!
This recipe will yield approximately 6 c./654g. total.
Very rarely do we ever eat only 1/4c./31g. like so many store bought granolas give as their serving size. So, we broke this up into 12, 1/2c./62g. servings.
Each servings contains,
Calories...................296
Fat...........................20.5g.
Carbs.......................26.5g.
Sugars.....................9g.
Protein.....................7g.
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