This Peanut Butter Cup Granola is probably the best breakfast out there. With some serious cluster game going on, this granola is a decadent yet fuelling option to start your day right.
I love making my own granola. For some reason, I find it rather relaxing. To me, making granola is almost the same as meditating – a mindfulness activity. I know my basic granola recipe off by heart, so I like pottering around the kitchen with a few cups measurements, adding rolled oats, maple syrup and nuts to a tray, not even really thinking about it. Another thing I love about granola, is that it is so versatile. I adjust and change the recipe according to what I have in my cupboard and it never fails nor disappoints. Basically, granola is very difficult to mess up. Which to me also makes it a dream food.
The fact that it is exceptionally hard to make granola taste bad, also gives space for ample experimentation. And that’s how my Nutella-flavoured granola came into existence: simply by experimenting, adding ingredients, crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. And it did turn out so great. That Nutella granola became my breakfast of choice and I thought to myself: wow, you’ll never gonna top that. And I truly believed that. But that’s the beautiful thing about food: it can really surprise you.
So that’s how this Peanut Butter Cup Granola happened: last week I set out to make some of my basic granola mix. Nothing fancy, just some oats, sweetener of choice, a few nuts and seeds and some oil. Simple. But then, upon surveying my cupboard, I noticed some lonely chocolate chunks leftover from previous recipes and an almost empty peanut butter jar, clearly crying for help. Lately I am on a serious waste-not-want-not situation. I have been going through my fridge, freezer and spice rack, using up anything that has been frozen for more than a couple of months, scraping curry paste from the bottom of the jar and basically throwing baby spinach into every single thing I have cooked for the past few days. So all of a sudden, both that chocolate and peanut butter I noticed started looking very appealing. Peanut butter and chocolate is hardly an innovative combination, but such a delicious one, I really didn’t feel like turning it down. And since peanut butter cups are the perfect marriage for these two different flavours, I pretty much decided there and then that to create the best granola out there.
Now, in many ways this granola imitates my Nutella one. Some ingredients have been used in the same (or similar) quantities and the method doesn’t change much. However, the game changer here is the nut butter. By mixing it in with the other liquid ingredients, it becomes like a paste which binds the oats and nuts together creating some of the chunkiest clusters I have ever seen. And those peanut buttery, chocolaty clusters are really what make this granola so addictive. And, by the way, I am not just saying it: currently, I am on my second batch. In a week.
Other pros of this granola (as if you needed more proof that this is a breakfast game changer) are as follows:
It’s completely vegan
It’s almost refined-sugar free: I only use 1 tbsp of sugar which can totally be omitted, making it totally refined-sugar free
Even with the sugar, it’s a much healthier granola than any similar store-bought counterparts
It’s made with less than 10 pantry staple ingredients
Pretty convincing isn’t it?
Before we get to the recipe, a note on nuts: I am aware that many people are allergic to peanuts. If that’s you, you can simply swap the peanut butter for any nut or seed butter you can safely eat. Then simply swap the whole peanuts with any other nuts you like. I promise you, it will still taste delicious and, most importantly, you will still get those magic, addictive clusters.
Ingredients:
140 gr rolled oats
120 gr skin-on, unsalted peanuts
1 tbsp cocoa powder (or cacao)
1 tsp sugar
3 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp peanut butter
3 tbsp vegetable oil
½ tsp vanilla extract
40 gr dark chocolate cut into small chunks (make sure it’s vegan)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Transfer the peanuts to a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 10 minutes. Take them out of the oven, let them cool down for a few minutes and then shake them with your hands to get the skin off.
To a bowl, add the oats, peanuts, sugar and cocoa powder and mix thoroughly. In another bowl whisk together the olive oil, peanut butter, maple syrup and vanilla extract until fully combined.
Transfer the wet ingredients to the oats and mix well until you get a dense, sticky mixture. Transfer that mixture to a baking tray with baking paper and press it down with a spoon until you get a compact “slab” of granola.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
Take it out of the oven and immediately sprinkle it with chocolate chunks. Gently fold the chocolate into the granola, making sure that it is fully coated without breaking too many clusters. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
Enjoy!
Did you try this recipe? Have you got any questions or feedback? We would love to hear from you! Let us know by leaving a comment below! Xx
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