Chocolate Cinnamon Granola – Classic cinnamon granola is given a chocolatey makeover with the addition of cocoa powder and mini chocolate chips. You’ll be shocked at how great the cinnamon and chocolate pairs together!
Granola is one of my favorite things to make at home. I never knew how easy it was to make or else I would have been making this all along! After making a pumpkin version for the first time last year, I fell in love with homemade granola and now I love thinking up new granola recipes.
My latest version is this Chocolate Cinnamon Granola and it’s honestly the best granola I’ve ever had – homemade or otherwise. I love the combination of cinnamon, chocolate, and sea salt. Those flavors, plus the crunch from the toasted oats, chopped pecans, and sliced almonds make for an irresistible snack that I just cannot get enough of!
My homemade granola recipes almost always have nuts, mostly because I have extra nuts leftover from previous recipes. This is the perfect way to use them all up! I used pecans and sliced almonds for this recipe but you can use whatever nuts you have lying around.
To make granola there’s only a few major steps:
- Mix dry ingredients (oats and nuts)
- Mix wet ingredients (honey, vanilla, oil, cinnamon, cocoa powder, etc)
- Mix wet and dry ingredients together
- Bake until toasted
See how easy it is?!
After making granola a few times, here are the things that I learned to make sure the granola comes out INCREDIBLE:
- Do not under-cook the granola! Raw oats and nuts are not yummy, no matter home much honey they are coated in.
- To make sure the granola cooks evenly, make sure to toss it halfway through baking.
- I like my granola in clusters. To make sure you get clusters of granola, you need to pack down the granola and compact it. Loose granola does not a cluster make.
- This granola recipe has chocolate chips in it. During the baking process, those chips will melt and probably loose their shape and crunch. So I save about 2 tablespoons of the chips and set them aside to add at the end so I have a few chips with crunch left in them.
And that’s all there is to it, folks! I hope you get to try this granola soon. But don’t expect it to last long – every time I make this, it’s gone in a couple days!
Chocolate Cinnamon Granola
Ingredients
- 2 cups old fashioned oats not instant!
- 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- sea salt for finishing (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Add chocolate chips, nuts and oats to a large bowl. In a separate small bowl, add the cocoa powder, oil, salt, honey, cinnamon, and vanilla extract and whisk together. Pour mixture into bowl with oats and nuts. Stir together until well-mixed.
- Pour granola onto large baking sheet and spread evenly into one layer and pat down to compact the mixture. Bake 12 minutes and remove. Stir mixture, pat down to compact it again, and return to oven for another 12-15 minutes, until the mixture is golden brown.
- Remove from oven to cool. Add a little sea salt to finish off the granola. Once cool, break apart the granola into chunks.
Pin for later:
More chocolate recipes you’ll love:
Chocolate Cinnamon Muffins
Nutella Crunch Cupcakes
Triple Chocolate Soft-Baked Cookies
This sounds like a great snack to have on hand, however, I would eat them as a whole meal.
When I saw chocolate in combination with cinnamon I knew that this was one recipe I was going to love. Homemade granola is always superior to the store bought kind. I think the store granola is flavorless and flat. The granola spiked with the chocolate and cinnamon would most certainly perk up the tastebuds. This recipe is a keeper.
This granola looks so good! I love how it’s clumped together.
Chocolate and cinnamon indeed make a fantastic pairing. Spicy and rich. I like how its been applied to granola. I can enjoy it with a bowl of Greek yogurt. Yum!
This combo sounds amazing. I love granola and definitely giving this a try.
This combo sounds amazing for granola! Definitely giving this a try!
My son would go crazy over this. I love your recipe! Lovely photos.
You had me at chocolate and them you said granola. This is like my mid-day snack. I love snacking on granola during the day so this would be absolute heaven.
I love having granola available all the time. I especially like it in my yogurt. This is amazing! Love the cinnamon and cocoa flavor!
Loving the sound and the look of your granola! I always make my own, and don’t even remember when last time I bought granola from the shop 🙂 Love the chocolate- cinnamon combo too!
I have two giant containers of oats collecting dust in my pantry that I’ve been meaning to find a use for. Granola never even crossed my mind. DUH! *FACE PALM!* I’m totally making this over the weekend! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for sharing tips as well to make this! Will save it.
I could eat this by the handful!!! I bet its great in yogurt!
Oooh yum! Never made granola before, but I love adding cinnamon to my hot chocolate so this sounds heavenly. Will have to give it a try.
Such a delicious flavor combination! I could snack on this every day!
I love pairing chocolate and cinnamon together! This looks like a delicious snack. Can’t wait to try it!
I am so glad I found your post! I usually make maple syrup or honey granola, and was really tired of it. Making this one next time 🙂
I love making my own granola too and this one looks amazing for when I have a chocolate craving!
I really need to try making my own granola! You make it look so easy
Oh my goodness! This looks so yummy. I’ve never made granola at home!