Cocoa Orange Hazelnut Granola

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This 6 ingredient granola is a great way to start the day or even to be a delicious chocolatey treat! Not only is this granola delicious, it is vegan, gluten free and free from refined sugar! So you can guarantee that this granola is a perfect way to fuel your day.

I absolutely love to make my own granola over buying from a shop. There are so many reasons why it’s the better option, plus it honestly doesn’t take any time at all! Firstly, it’s such a great way to use up what you have in your cupboard. If you have lots of packs of dried fruit, nuts and seeds, you can chuck anything in it and it’s such a great way of ingredients not going to waste! Making granola is also a fun and easy way to get creative with your breakfasts! You can add so many different flavour’s and ingredients to make it unique to your tastes, and it’s a fantastic way to try out new ideas, which is something in which I love to do! Also, another reason in which I love making granola is you can control how much fat and sugar goes into it. Sometimes shop granola is packed with so much sugar it can be hard to classify granola as a ‘healthy’ alternative. However when you make your own, you can sweeten to your preference and can add any ingredient in which you’d like!

Basically all I’m saying is that this recipe is a base, it can be tweaked to your preference and made into anything you’d like! I’d love to see people getting more creative with their breakfasts and this is such a great way to start!

What ingredients do I need?

• Coarse Cut Oats
• Coconut oil 
• Maple Syrup
• Orange zest
• Cacao powder
• Hazelnuts

COARSE CUT OATS

The reason I’ve specified coarse cut oats is purely so you get the whole oat in which you can get better clusters in the granola which I love! If you only have porridge oats, this will work perfectly well and will still be a great granola!

COCONUT OIL

I love the flavour in which coconut oil brings to the recipe, however sunflower and olive oil will also work really well. The purpose of the oil is to give the granola moisture so it can go crispy. Just bear in mind that any oil you may use, if it is a stronger flavored oil, you will taste it so it may alter the final flavor of the granola.

MAPLE SYRUP

Maple syrup is a great natural sweetener for a granola. However there are load of good alternatives which are also still free from refined sugar! Honey, Agave, Brown rice syrup and coconut sugar are really great options which are still all a better alternatives than caster or brown sugar.

ORANGE ZEST

This is purely to flavour the granola with orange. This can be omitted if orange isn’t your cup of tea! You can replace with cinnamon, mixed spice, cardamom or any flavour in which takes your fancy!

CACAO POWDER

Cacao powder has so many health benefits, it’s an antioxidant (higher than many ingredients that are known to be high in antioxidants!) , it helps to lower blood pressure and to increase your serotonin and mood! So it’s such a great ingredient to add into your breakfast or any meals to that matter! However if you don’t have cacao powder, cocoa powder is still a great way to add that chocolatey flavour!

HAZELNUTS

I’m a massive fan of hazelnuts and would put them in all my meals if I could! But if you aren’t a fan of hazelnuts or have a nut allergy, you can so easily switch out with another nut or dried fruit or seeds.

There are so many ways to serve granola too! I personally love the classic yoghurt and berry combo, but there are so many ways in which you can spice it up! Here are some ideas in which you can do so!

• Greek style yoghurt, fresh berry compote, granola and some extra honey and nut butter!
• Chia seed pudding with coconut yoghurt topped with granola
• Acai berry smoothie bowl with granola, fresh fruit and nut butter