It’s Healthy & Psyched PEANUT BUTTER WEEK 2018! I’m keeping it low key compared to 2016 and 2017 but I wanted to share this incredibly delicious vegan chocolate granola recipe with you.

In previous years I have posted one recipe on every day of peanut butter week, but I’m very busy at the moment with finishing my PhD and prepping for 4 upcoming talks/ workshops (head to my facebook events page if you’d like to know more about them)! So unfortunately, this means that I just don’t have time to create and upload 7 new recipes!

Instead I’m going to be running PEANUT BUTTER WEEK on my @healthyandpsyched instagram account. This year I’m encouraging you all to get involved and there’s even a chance to win some prizes, so make sure you check it out tomorrow.

Back to the granola – it’s only 5 ingredients (+ 2 optional) but has a wonderful depth of flavour. It was so easy to whip up and I’ll definitely be making it again. It’s made with oats (obviously), cacao powder (pretty obvious as well from the title), maple syrup for sweetness and something which you probably wouldn’t have guessed – cacao butter! Yep – the same ingredient used to make chocolate! So this is quite literally vegan chocolate granola!!

Inspired by Leitchy Creates chocolate chip granola, I decided to use cacao butter instead of coconut oil, which I usually use if I’m not making oil free granola. This experiment was definitely a tasty success and even though it seems indulgent, it really isn’t; the macro-nutrient profile is similar to if I’d used coconut oil (the only real difference is the amount of saturated fat. Pipkin unrefined coconut oil has 94.2g, buywholefoodsonline.co.uk raw cacao butter drops 63.1g).

I was also inspired to make it look more indulgent and serve it in these beautiful La Rochère bee collection champagne flutes, made in France, that I was gifted from Chefs Collection. I do believe in the saying that ‘you eat with your eyes’ and that presenting something nicely can make a difference to how much you enjoy it, so why not try this serving idea if you’re ever feeling like your breakfast is getting a bit mundane.

5 ingredient vegan chocolate granola recipe

Ingredients
(serves 8ish)

• 2 cups rolled oats (optional: gluten free)
• 1/4 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy)
• 1/3 cup (65g) cacao butter buttons
• 2 tbsp maple syrup (or more if you want it sweeter)
• 1.5 tbsp cacao powder
• 2 tbsp cacao nibs (optional)
• Pinch of pink Himalayan salt (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Heat the cacao butter buttons in a large pan on a low heat until melted
3. Take it off the heat and stir in the peanut butter and maple syrup until combined
4. Add in the oats and cacao powder and mix until all of the oats are evenly coated
5. Pour the oats onto a baking tray in an even layer and place into the oven
6. Cook for 10 minutes, stir the granola, then cook again for another 7-10 minutes
7. Once your granola has cooked leave it to cool before storing in an air tight container
   (use this special trick if you want it to be extra crunchy)
8. Serve with yogurt (I used Nush Foods almond milk yogurt) and berries

HAPPY PEANUT BUTTER WEEK 2018

I hope you enjoyed this indulgent but healthy vegan chocolate granola recipe – check out this strawberry shortcake granola using peanut butter or this pecan chocolate recipe that I created for Romy London using cacao butter.