Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola (Vegan, GF, Fruit-Sweetened, Maple Option)

Fall is coming upon us quickly, which means... it's granola szn!! The newest flavor is actually one of the earliest granolas I created, but I never got around to tweaking the recipe to perfect it and hadn't photographed it. But now I have. And wow, is it delicious! It is gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar free, with an option for date-sweetened granola or a maple-sweetened version. And you can use almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, or any other nut or seed butter instead of the pb. This granola is perfect to eat as a breakfast cereal, sprinkled on top of yogurt, as a trail mix-like snack, or even as a garnish on top of a smoothie bowl. It's a lil crunchy, a lil chewy, sweet, tastes like a peanut butter cup, and is a whole lot of delicious. What more could you want in a granola?! And it is so easy and quick to make. So welcome to the first flavor of the season: Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola!

Jump to Recipe

So I know I say this every time, but: this newest granola flavor might be a new favorite. It's right up there with my Matcha Almond Granola, Golden Milk Granola, Strawberry 

Coconut Granola, and Raspberry Rose Granola. If you're a chocolate-lover or you love my classic Peanut Butter Granola, this one is a must-try.

As always, it is vegan, gluten-free, and refined sugar free. The sweetener options are dates or maple syrup (or agave, coconut nectar, date syrup, honey, maple sugar, coconut sugar, really any granulated, powdered, or sticky sweetener). See the "Substitutions" section of this post for more sweetener options. If you're allergic to peanut butter, can't eat it on your diet, or just don't like it, you can replace it with any other nut/seed butter such as almond butter, cashew butter, hazelnut butter, macadamia butter, sunflower seed butter, tahini, pumpkin seed butter, hempseed butter, coconut butter, soy butter- the list goes on. And the add-ins are very customizable too.

Even better is that this granola is SUPER simple and takes just 30 minutes to come together. All you have to do is mix the ingredients together in a bowl, spread onto a baking sheet, and bake- that's it!

The flavor of this granola is incredible. Think sweet peanut butter cup meets oatmeal but make it *crunchy* The raisins are a nice addition too, and I highly recommend using peanuts as one of the types of nuts/seeds in the mix.

Right now, I'm improving my old Pumpkin Granola recipe to have it ready in time for peak autumn. I also want to try an Almond Joy granola, Nutella granola, and a granola sweetened only with bananas... so I'll be experimenting.

But what granola do you think I should make next? Like this post and drop your suggestion in the comments!

Substitutions

Gluten-free rolled oats

I wouldn't substitute any other kind of oats for the gluten-free rolled (old-fashioned) oats because quick oats, instant oats, and steel-cut oats all take different amounts of time to cook and have drastically different textures. If the oats don't need to be certified gluten-free, you can sub regular rolled oats. Possibly, you could omit the oats and instead use gluten-free/vegan/sugar-free crispy rice cereal. You want a good amount of texture and volume to replace the oats, and something like a gluten-free, vegan, and sugar-free (unsweetened) crispy rice cereal would do the trick, I think, without adding too many extra calories or fat

Coconut oil

You can use avocado oil instead. Other healthy oil options include olive oil and macadamia oil. If you do seed oils, grapeseed oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, or vegetable oil work. Instead of the oil, you can replace it partially or fully with unsweetened applesauce OR puréed banana. If you really wanted to, you can omit the oil, but the granola will come out less crispy and the flavor will be affected somewhat

Peanut butter

I emphasized this earlier in the post, but you can use any nut or seed butter in place of the PB. Almond butter, cashew butter, macadamia butter, walnut butter, pecan butter, hazelnut butter, sunflower seed butter, tahini, pumpkin seed (pepita) butter, hempseed butter, coconut butter, and soy butter are all great options. If you just want plain chocolate granola (with no nutty aspect), simply omit the nut butter

Cacao powder

you can use cocoa powder instead, regular or dark/alkalized/Dutch-processed is fine. Instead of the cacao powder and for a caffeine-free option that tastes similar, try carob powder. If you just want peanut butter granola (without the chocolate), check out my classic Peanut Butter Granola recipe

Date paste

Instead of the date paste, you can use maple syrup, agave nectar, date syrup, coconut nectar, yacón syrup, honey (if not strictly vegan), OR your sticky sweetener of choice. Dry sweeteners such as date sugar, maple sugar, and coconut sugar can work here too. If you can have refined sugar on your diet, but want a reduced sugar option, try using 2 Tbsp brown sugar + 2 Tbsp maple syrup/coconut sugar/date paste (per single batch). For sugar-free, you can try pure monk fruit extract (the concentrated kind that comes in powder or drops, NOT the kind with erythritol, allulose, or any other added sweeteners/fillers) OR pure stevia extract to taste. With the stevia or monk fruit, it should be to your taste, and shouldn't require more than a pinch/a few drops

Nuts/seeds

You can use any kind of nuts or seeds in this granola (to give some ideas: walnuts, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pistachios, macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc.). Make sure the nuts/seeds are raw and preferably unsalted. And if you can't do nuts or seeds on your diet, try replacing them with extra oats and/or crispy rice cereal that works on your diet

Vanilla extract

Recommended but can technically be omitted. Instead of vanilla extract, try a pinch of scraped vanilla bean, a pinch of ground vanilla bean powder (pre-collected black vanilla seeds), a pinch of sugar-free vanilla powder (white powder), a dot of sugar-free vanilla bean paste (sugar-scrub-like paste), OR a drizzle of sugar-free vanilla syrup. Instead of vanilla, you can try coconut extract, almond extract, or orange extract to add different flavors.

Unsweetened raisins

Perfectly optional, but you can use dark/red or white/golden. Or try unsweetened dried cranberries (unsweetened craisins), unsweetened dried cherries, unsweetened dried blueberries, or your unsweetened dried fruit of choice. If you can have sugar, sweetened raisins are fine. Just make sure whatever dried fruit you choose, it's unsulphured

Unsweetened shredded coconut

The shredded coconut is optional. Shredded, flaked, or desiccated coconut works, just make sure it's unsweetened if you can't have sugar. Instead of coconut shreds, try chia seeds, hempseed, whole flaxseeds, or sesame seeds for an added crunch and nutritional boost

Like This Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola + Keep Posted for the Next Recipe Post!

I'll be back with more new posts soon, so stay tuned for more recipes! Also, to my customers + for those of you who are local: I hope to see you at the farmers markets this weekend! I'll be at Pennington Farmers Market from 9 am-1 pm on Saturday and Hopewell Farmers Market from 9 am-1 pm on Sunday.

More recipes baking...posts in progress...loading...

Enjoy! :)

-K. 🌾