This Healthy Chocolate Granola is super healthy, nutritious, oil-free, gluten-free and made with wholesome ingredients and a boost of cinnamon for extra flavor! No need to ever buy store-bought granola again!
I have a fondness for making lots of homemade healthy granola recipes, like this one! All my granola recipes are oil-free, easy to make and contain no oil. Learning How to Cook and Bake Without Oil is a major improvement in one’s health.
My most popular granola ever is this 5 Ingredient Cinnamon Granola. I love to eat them with a bowl of fresh homemade almond milk!
I often alternate between eating either granola, for breakfast or snack, and these Almond Pulp Chocolate Chip Granola Bars!
2 of my favorite flavors are chocolate and cinnamon, so combining the 2 in a delicious oil-free granola recipe, was a must.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
(Only 8 main ingredients. Full measurements on recipe card below.)
- Old-fashioned rolled oats: Use certified gluten-free if necessary. I use Bob’s Red Mill.
- Unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- Cinnamon
- Sunlower kernels: or any other nuts or seeds of choice, as needed for allergies.
- Sliced almonds: or seeds of choice.
- Pure maple syrup: Or you can use agave.
- Roasted almond butter: I use my homemade almond butter, but you can use sunbutter (sunflower seed butter) for nut-free, if needed.
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
HOW TO MAKE HEALTHY CHOCOLATE GRANOLA
Step 1: Combine the dry ingredients into a large bowl. I love my large wooden bowl.
Step 2: Combine the wet ingredients in a small bowl, pour over the dry and stir to combine.
Step 3: Bake at 325°F for 15 minutes on low rack, stir around the granola and bake on the middle rack for 10 more minutes.
Step 4: Cool 15 minutes at least and it will crisp up as cooling. Serve as a breakfast, snack or dessert.
GRANOLA SUBSTITUTIONS
- Sweetener: Sub the syrup for agave if needed. It will work beautifully.
- Nut-free: Sub the almond butter for sunbutter if allergic. Do the same with the almonds.
- Spices: Feel free to sub the cinnamon with my homemade pumpkin pie spice for a fun new flavor!
MORE OIL FREE VEGAN GRANOLA RECIPES
- Healthy Oil-free Granola that is super buttery!
- Vegan Peanut Butter Granola Bars
- Apple Pie Granola
- Peanut Butter Granola
- Buckwheat Granola
- Perfect Vegan Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
- Cinnamon Granola Bars
- Nut-free Granola Bars
Healthy Chocolate Granola (Oil-free)
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 3 cups (300g) old-fashioned oats
- 5 tablespoons (30g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/3 cup (50g) sliced almonds
- 1/3 cup (40g) sunflower kernels or chopped pecan pieces
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (200g) pure maple syrup (see NOTES below)
- 4 tablespoons (64g) roasted creamy almond butter
- 2 tablespoons (30g) water (OMIT if doing 3/4 cup syrup)
- 2 teaspoons (10g) vanilla extract
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 325°F and Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine the oats, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt and stir well. Stir in the seeds and nuts.
- In a small bowl, combine the syrup, almond butter (water if using) and vanilla). Whisk well. Pour over the dry and stir until evenly coated. This will take a couple of minutes.
- Spread the granola out evenly onto the lined pan and press down with the back of the spoon to make the granola stick. It should be about 1/2 inch high for nice size chunks.
- Bake on the LOW rack for 15 minutes. Remove and stir the granola around well, then return back to the oven on the MIDDLE rack and bake another 10 minutes.
- The granola will be soft upon removal but will harden as it cools over the next 15 minutes or so.
- Store in a ziplock bag or sealed container.
- Tip: As a sweeter/dessert option you can throw in some chocolate chips. Do this as soon as you remove the granola from the oven by just dropping them over the cooked granola. It will slightly melt into the granola.
Notes
GRANOLA SUBSTITUTIONS
- Sweetener: Sub the syrup for agave if needed. It will work beautifully.
- Nut-free: Sub the almond butter for sunbutter if allergic. Do the same with the almonds.
- Spices: Feel free to sub the cinnamon with my homemade pumpkin pie spice for a fun new flavor!
Nutrition
Yum! Looks not only healthy, but pleasing to the eye and belly. 😉 Thanks for the keeper recipe!
Thanks so much August! Very yummy and makes a great, adorable little gift that is personal and you can feel good about giving! Hope you like it! 🙂
This granola is amazing! So much better than store bought and so easy to make! Can’t wait to make it again! Two thumbs up!
Thanks Lesli! I’m so glad you finally tried it! I told you it was easy 🙂
I have made your chocolate granola & it rocked my taste buds! ooh yes! 🙂 Yummie!
That’s awesome to hear Sophie!! I love this stuff because it’s nutritious, delicious and filling too!! Thank you!
Oh gosh, I know what you mean about snacking. I am constantly munching 🙂 this looks so yummy though. Perfect idea for easy holiday gifts!
I am newly looking into the raw/vegan world and mainly because I stumbled upon your recipes and have tried a couple and they are so amazing! Thank you for all that you do. As for my question, what about using pure maple grade B? I didn’t have any pure maple syrup so I bought some today but all the grades/levels confused me! So they have vey distinct flavor profiles? (Or in this granola recipe in particular?) thanks in advance for your help! 🙂 keep doing what you do! 🙂
Hi MJ! Aww thank you so much! I’m so glad you found my blog and are enjoying the recipes! Feel free to leave me feedback on any that you make, I love hearing from you all, it makes my day. 🙂 About the syrup, regular maple syrup is grade A and is the most widely used syrup and is what I use for pretty much all my recipes. Grade B is darker and thicker and usually more expensive, but the flavor is incredible. But because it is harder to find and thicker, I only use it on occasion. You can always just use regular grade A maple syrup. One thing is never use imitation syrup…those will not give the same results are are basically just corn syrup. Thanks again so much for your feedback! 🙂
Love this stuff! I combine it with bananas and “yoghurt”.
So awesome to hear that Steffi, thank you for the feedback!
This looks SO good!! Where do you get your dark cocoa? I’m a dark chocolate girl myself, and I would love to find some that’s good quality!
Hi this looks so good. How long does it last in the fridge. I’ve been following you for yeats
Thank you so much for the support Linda! In the fridge, this should last a few weeks, as there isn’t really anything to make it spoil, just keep it sealed.
This recipe is sooo good! I love it and for the first time I did not burn my granola 😅
I’m so happy you had success with this granola, Claudia!
This granola is amazing! I love all of Brandi’s recipes, but this has moved to the top!!
Thank you so much Debbie, I’m so happy you loved it!
Very good granola, staple pantry items – chocolate and cinnamon, two of my favorite flavors. Will definitely make this again and again!
Yay, thank you Marybeth!
As I crunch through my second bowl all I can say is perfect, perfect, perfect. Simple, ideal recipe as is and yet adjustable. Can’t imagine any other recipe being any better. Thanks for this!!!
Yay!! So happy you l oved it so much!
Delicious! I made it with chopped walnuts and chopped almonds and used agave. Also added a little coconut. The chocolate oatmeal base is amazing and can be modified based on what is on hand.
Can u please tell me what your favorite non dairy yogurt brands are? I love the culina coconut yogurt, but it’s very expensive. Thank you so much, and I love all your recipes.
Thanks Brandi so much for this recipe, it’s delicious and has the perfect crunch! Made it last night and of course munched a little during and couldn’t wait until this morning to have with blueberries and bananas. Love this!
Hello Brandi, could I make this recipe using Erythritol sweetener instead of maple syrup, and then increase the amount of nut butter or water? Thank you so much for all your amazing recipes! Everything I have tried always turns out so delicious and just right!
Hi! I’ve never used that stuff, so I don’t know how it would affect the flavor. The syrup adds crunchiness because of the way it bakes up, so removing that will really affect the texture. Water would not work well, it’ll just make it soggy. You need a sticky sweetener here. Maybe a simple syrup of some kind? Glad to hear you enjoy the recipes, thank you!