Andrew Olson
Remember the last time I made granola? Probably not. It was the second recipe I ever posted and I called it the ‘famous’ One Ingredient granola. I’m not sure why I called it famous. I mean, there were about 17 people reading my blog back then and it seems like quite an audacious title in retrospect.
While that granola was tasty, it wasn’t exactly perfect. Making homemade granola is easy, but making it crunchy and cluster-y is a bit more difficult — take a wrong turn and you’ll just end up with chewy individual oats. I’ve since refined my granola-making techniques for this one, which results in beautiful, crunchy clusters of the quintessential hippie food.
But what about these bizarre flavors? Well, I woke up yesterday and it just hit me – CHOCOLATE AND PUMPKIN! Never had I tried these ingredients together, but I was obsessed with finding a way to put these very different flavors into one dish. I had a feeling they would play nicely, and it turned out even better than expected. Chocolate and pumpkin. It’s the new thing.
This one might just become more famous than the famous granola…
Makes 4 cups
Ingredients:
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup chopped almonds
- 1/4 cup ground flax
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat the oven to 300º F
Step One
In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups rolled oats, 1 cup chopped almonds, 1/4 cup ground flax and a pinch of salt and toss together. [The flax is really great here. In addition to adding tons of nutrition, it also encourages the granola to clump together when cooked.]
Step Two
In a saucepan, gently warm the pumpkin puree, maple syrup, coconut oil, cocoa powder, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla just until everything is melted and combined – we’re not trying to cook this, just melt it.
Step Three
Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients and quickly stir until the oats are evenly coated. Then, transfer to a baking tray and spread into a thin layer. Bake at a very low temperature of 300º F for 30 minutes, then use a spatula to gently toss and bake for about 10 more minutes (approximately 40 minutes total) until the oat clusters are crispy.
Step Four
Sprinkle a little more pumpkin pie spice over top for good measure, toss in the raisins, and allow to cool before storing in an airtight mason jar for up to a week. Serve with your favorite non-dairy milk (almond or cashew, perhaps?) 🙂
Thank you for this amazing recipe. I was just thinking about making a pumpkin granola with chocolate yesterday. You read my mind!! I will definitely be making this.
‘Twas meant to be! 🙂
Looks great! This would also be excellent substituting sprouted buckwheat for the oats. Soak about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, drain and rinse etc and let sprout about 36 hours, until tails between as long as and 2X as long as original grain. Then just use the recipe as is. On my short list for sure!
That’s a cool idea, Geoffrey! Buckwheat and I have never become good friends… we definitely need to spend more time together. 🙂
I really like it sprouted and “toasted” as in granola. Also I make Manna bread w/ sprouted buckwheat. Totally gluten free for those that need that. Heck just boil some up for a cold morning breakfast; cooks pretty fast
Ok ok Andrew… you just gave me a task for the upcoming rainy Saturday… To find pumpkin puree in this Kingdom across the pond is my mission!!!
🙂
Haha, is it really hard to find canned pumpkin puree over there? Here, it’s literally falling off the shelves in October. Oh and for the pumpkin pie spice, mine is basically just a blend of: cinnamon, ginger, lemon peel, nutmeg, cardamom, star anise, fennel, and black pepper. If you can’t find the official spice, a blend of any/all of those would work fine!
Canned pumpkin puree is not a popular culinary ingredient here at all (shame, cause I LOVE it!), so not easily available to buy big mainstream supermarket chains. But, I remember seeing it in a feel shops that stock American goodies, specially in the area where the American School is, so, it is a mission, but not an impossible one.
Thanks for the spice tip, I have all ingredients at home, lucky me! I will try to make it tomorrow and will report back.
Try Amazon UK! Here’s the link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Libbys-100%25-Pure-Pumpkin-Filling/dp/B003FO2DAS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414232699&sr=8-1&keywords=pumpkin+puree
P.S: And pumpkin pie spice. Oh dear!
Just use the 4 separate spices that generally make up Pumpkin Pie spice: Cinnamon, Ground Cloves, Ground Ginger and Nutmeg. 🙂
Thanks a lot for the kind reply Cinde. I have just removed my batch of granola from the oven, it smells just like heaven!
Thanks for this great recipe… I am making it tomorrow! Yum! 🙂
Andrew,
Great news! I bought the very last can of pumpkin puree from a very small deli not far from my place and made the granola, which just came out of the oven leaving my entire house with a delicious sweet spicy fragrance.
Made two minor substitutions, as I was separating the ingredients, I realized I ran out of cocoa powder, but I had a very high quality bar of 80%, so I grated it till 1/4 cup and used in the syrup. I also had around 1/2 cup of almonds, so complemented the other half with macadamias. Could not hold myself and tried a little bit on its own. Words cannot describe how crunch the nuts are, and the unexpected subtle, yet noticeable notes of spicy pumpkin with the somewhat bitterness of the dark chocolate make everything way more interesting.
Thanks for a winner recipe again!
YAY 🙂 I’m so glad you were able to find the pumpkin AND it turned out well (and I bet using actual chocolate was incredible). *high five* 🙂
I made this granola yesterday and we had some today. It is delicious BUT I had added the raisins before baking. I’m thinking they should be added after baking. When do you add the raisins??? Next time I make it I’m going to increase the amount of cinnamon. because we love cinnamon and cinnamon loves chocolate! Thanks for this great recipe!
Hi Eleanor, thanks for pointing this out… it’s so weird, I remember writing to add the raisins *after* baking, but somehow it’s not in the post! I’ve updated the recipe to include this info.
Made this recipe this morning – it’s amazing, thank you! I kept telling people about this, but everyone has been very wary – pumpkin?! In granola?! Never. Now I can tell them for sure how great it i . 🙂
Oh, that’s so cool, Janell! I’m so happy you like it! Now take some to all the pumpkin granola haters and show them what’s up 😀
This is delicious! One of my new favorite breakfast foods!
Thanks, Charity!! I’m so glad you like it 🙂
Yum! I’m glad I came back across this recipe! Do you have a suggestion of what I could replace the raisins with that would still go well with everything else? Chocolate chips would be super tasty with this but not as healthy as raisins!
Hmm, naturally I’d think of another type of dried fruit, like cranberries, but you might also be able to simply omit the raisins altogether.
(hint: use the chocolate chips!!) 🙂
Is there something I can sub for the oil?
Ah, that’s tough with granola. I’m kind of anti-oil as well but if you leave it out, it might get really weird when baking. You might be able to reduce the amount and maybe sub a tablespoon of oil, for example, but I’m not sure… you can always try!