Vegan Salted Chocolate Probiotic Granola [GF]
Simply the BEST salty & sweet granola! This vegan salted chocolate probiotic granola is gluten-free, high protein and made with no refined sugar!
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 3 tbsp melted coconut oil
- 1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats certified GF if needed
- 1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 1/3 cup hemp hearts
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp cocoa or cacao powder
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 - 1 tsp salt start with 1/2 tsp before baking, then add the rest to taste when it's done
- about 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/2 tsp probiotic powder, or 1-2 capsules OR desired amount
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add all wet ingredients to a large bowl. Mix well. See notes.
- Next, add the dry ingredients (except chocolate chips and probiotic powder) to the wet ingredients. Mix well.
- Add granola mixture to the baking sheet and press down with a spatula until you have a nice even layer, tightly packed (that's how you get those yummy clusters!)
- Bake for 20 minutes on the bottom rack.
- Then, take granola out, turn the oven off, flip mixture over and press down again with the spatula into another tightly packed even layer.
- Return the granola to the bottom rack and bake for another 15 minutes.
- Then, take it out of the oven, and cool the granola cool for about 10-15 minutes. Next, sprinkle chocolate chips over the granola and then return to oven (the oven is still off!) and bake for a minute or two, until the chocolate chips are just starting to melt (soft but not liquid). ***see notes!
- Take granola out of the oven and gently mix granola so the melted chocolate spreads a bit.
- Let the granola sit and cool and harden.
- Add the probiotic powder (sprinkle lightly and evenly) and mix again.
- Serve and enjoy! It is best stored in the refrigerator.
Notes
- Make sure your coconut oil is melted and if your maple syrup is cold, your mixture might get hard and clumpy due to the coconut oil hardening. If this happens, simply pop it in the microwave for about 10 seconds or so until it’s smooth.
- ***you can easily skip this step and just add the chocolate chips as soon as the granola comes out of the oven if you don't mind them being completely melted. I take the extra time to wait for it to cool a bit and watch the chocolate chips closely in the oven because I really enjoy the chocolate chunks in my granola but this is personal preference!
- If you are oil-free, you could omit oil and add a bit more maple syrup, or add peanut butter in place of the coconut oil, although I haven’t tried this myself so I’m not sure how it would affect the texture but it should work!
- Oven temps can really vary, so be sure to check on your granola to ensure it’s not burning. I take mine out when the outer edges are crispy and the middle is still relatively soft. It hardens as it cools.
- Add salt to taste. I like mine salty but didn’t want to put a measurement as everyone is different!