Chocolate Chip Granola

Don't worry - soon my blog will solely be granola recipes. Haha! But seriously - as you can tell, the cold, dead feelings of winter left me pretty uninspired in the kitchen. I cooked and baked, but I never came up with anything new to really document. I tried my hand at macarons - they turned out okay. The first batch I made was a delicious, delicately flavored Earl Grey cookie with a *perfect* lemon ganache filling, but the cookies themselves were hollow (a fault of incredibly under-mixing). The second batch, I did a blueberry macaron with blueberry buttercream. The cookies were fine, but the buttercream was overmixed, curdled, and tasted like seized butter (gross). The blueberry jam I used in it was also really runny and tasted like fermented fruit rather than sweet, succulent blueberries. My husband lovingly said he liked them, but I really disliked how they turned out.

Needless to say, the only other baking I did over the past few months involved very little creativity in the form of box mixes: I made a 50th strawberry birthday cake for my mom - which was a win because my great aunt, a baking connoisseur, said "it definitely was homemade"; cupcakes; and brownies (which I still have the scar on my hand from - TOTALLY WORTH IT).

When my neighbor friend, Kristine, recently told me about making chocolate chip granola bars, I decided it was finally time to try making chocolate chip granola. I've always thought about it, but never thought it would work because, like, what if the chocolate chips melt?? I looked up a couple recipes, found one that might work, and then blended that recipe with my traditional granola recipe to make a unique chocolate chip granola that I love eating by itself with milk. I cleared things out from my pantry and came up with the recipe below. Also, what about adding dates? Or dark chocolate chunks in the future?

Sorry for no original pictures - I'm not quite that inspired yet, but I can feel myself awakening with each new, warm spring day. Also, sorry for being long-winded! It has just been so long since I posted - I thought I'd catch you up!

Chocolate Chip Granola

5 cups rolled oats

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup shaved/shredded sweetened coconut

1 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup honey (or maple syrup)

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/6 cup chia seeds

4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients (oats, chocolate chips, cranberries, coconut, almonds, brown sugar, walnuts, chia seeds, and salt) until combined well.

3. Add wet ingredients (honey, vanilla, and vegetable oil), and mix everything well until all ingredients are incorporated. Spread ingredients evenly onto baking sheet.

4. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until granola has browned and crisped. Watch to make sure it doesn't burn - your chocolate chips will taste chalky and the oats will taste burned otherwise. Cool completely and enjoy, or store in containers.

Notes: I baked mine for 45 minutes, and I think it was slightly too long with my oven. I had originally tried 35 minutes, and it was still underdone. Next time, I'll try 38 or 40 minutes and see how it goes. Baking on a higher temperature with a thinner layer of granola also gave me the bigger clusters that both Robby and I enjoy, so I will try that with our traditional granola recipe in the future.

Thanks so much for reading! If you try this recipe, let me know how it goes!