Triple Chocolate Hazelnut Granola

There is not much to say about how I thought of this recipe.

I think about new granola recipes all the time. They say guys think about sex every minute. I think about granola every minute. Some minutes are also reserved to chocolate recipes. Because chocolate makes everything good. So triple chocolate granola is just a normal step in my baking experiments. And is there a better nut than hazelnut to add to it? Ever heard of Nutella?

Ok, I’ll admit I didn’t think of adding hazelnuts because of Nutella.
I wanted to make a simple triple chocolate granola with dark and white chocolate. But there I was, at the grocery store, staring at the chocolate, and realizing they didn’t have my white chocolate (I use Lindt). It took me a while to accept it and look at what they did have.

This is when I saw the Ritter Sport chocolate. When I worked in a grocery store, I used to share Ritter Sport milk chocolate with whole hazelnuts with a coworker. And this chocolate was a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
This is how I had the idea of adding hazelnuts: I saw the white chocolate with whole hazelnuts. And all I could think was YUM.

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Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup brown rice crisp cereal
• 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
• 1/4 cup chia seeds
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 2 tbsp earth balance (or butter), melted
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 100 g hazelnut white chocolate, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate

Directions: Preheat oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, mix oats, rice cereal, chia seeds, hazelnuts, cocoa powder and salt. In a small bowl, whisk melted earth balance, honey and vanilla extract. Pour on dry ingredients and toss until well coated. Spread on the baking sheet and bake on the middle rack for 20-25 minutes, stirring once or twice.
Let cool on baking sheet, then transfer to a bowl and add chopped chocolate. Store in air-tight container.

Makes 6 cups granola.

This granola was amazing, but do I really need to tell you? It is not overly sweet, and the hazelnuts really come out. The main flavors come from the hazelnuts and the chopped chocolate!