Chocolate granola with pistachio & quinoa puffs makes a delicious brunch dessert or topping for yoghurt or ice-cream any time of day. Serve with rhubarb and blood orange for a late winter dish.
I don’t really get the whole chocolate for breakfast thing. Chocolate in porridge, chocolate cereal, and even the classic pain au chocolate pastry, I just can’t.
Now this might be a strange way to open a blog post all about a recipe that is traditionally eaten at breakfast time, and is full of chocolate, but hear me out.
I love chocolate, absolutely love the stuff, I eat it everyday (no word of a lie), but Easter Sunday aside, I rarely want to eat it before lunch. I love to enjoy my chocolate as a mid afternoon pick me up, or to round off my evening dinner. It’s just how I feel and let that be it!
So, I never really entertained the idea of making a chocolate granola, that is until I started catering brunch events with Replenish You and Tally Rye. A ‘brunch dessert’ had already become a thing at previous events, this time around (our event was last Saturday) I wanted something to pair with seasonal roasted forced rhubarb and blood oranges. They both go with chocolate, and then the idea for the dish just then took flight.
So brunch dessert is a pretty rare occurrence, normally (there is a fair amount of chocolate and sugar in this one, because go big or go home), but having munched my way through various test batches of this recipe for my mid afternoon chocolate hit, and evening dessert I realised that granola doesn’t just have to be for the morning; a sprinkle of this on top some Greek Yoghurt for some crunch, or even on top of some ice cream for a dessert. Why ever not?
I adapted my recipe from Minimalist baker. The pistachios are I think the perfect pairing for both chocolate and the fruit I served with it, and the quinoa puffs whilst optional, do add a lovely texture into the mix. I bought a bag from UK grown brand Hodmedods last year when I did a batch order of yellow pea flour (like gram flour, but better tasting) last summer and needed to get my basket over £30 for free delivery.
If, however you do want a slightly more sensible morning granola, you can try my go to recipe, a retreat catering favourite.
To serve as I have, roast some sticks of rhubarb, roughly 5cm long with a drizzle of maple syrup and if you like some chopped stem ginger, for around 8-10 minutes at 180ºC (fan) – any longer than that they tend to disintegrate, but it will depend on the girth of your rhubarb sticks (also nice with a cheesecake, like last year)
You can also add some segments of orange, blood orange preferably. To segment your orange like so, you can check out my instagram video. The technique is called suprême by chefs, particularly French ones.
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Chocolate Granola with Pistachio & Quinoa Puffs
- 400g rolled oats
- 45g light muscovado sugar
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 45g cocoa powder
- 90mls olive oil
- 180ml maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150g dark chocolate chips
- 100g chopped pistachios
- 25g quinoa puffs
- 5g freeze dried raspberries
- per person, 120g Greek yoghurt
- 5 x 5cm sticks of roasted rhubarb
- 5 blood orange segments (~half an orange)
- Pre-heat your oven to 170ºC (fan).
- Combine the oats, muscovado sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a medium sized bowl. Meanwhile put the maple syrup and olive oil in a small saucepan, heat gently and stir until the maple syrup and oil are well combined. Add the vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir to combine, till all the oats are nicely brown with chocolate.
- Line a baking tray and spread out the granola evenly, in a thin layer. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes, stirring half way to ensure it cooks evenly, then remove from the oven. The granola will still be soft and a little wet when it comes out of the oven, that's fine as it will harden as it cools.
- If you cook it till its dry, chances are it will burn, and its hard to tell when chocolate is burnt because of the brown. Sprinkle over half the chocolate chips whilst still warm, and stir so they melt into the granola, then leave to cool completely.
- Finally when fully cooled, sprinkle over the remaining chocolate, pistachios, quinoa pops and freeze-dried raspberry. Keep in an airtight container.
- A serving is around 40g of granola
Tell me, what would be your serving suggestion for chocolate granola?
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What a delicious looking breakfast, love the idea of adding the puffed quinoa.
Thanks Anna, I’m pretty partial to it for a dessert at the moment 🙂
I also struggle with the concept of chocolate, and many other sweet things, for breakfast. I’ve taken time to ween my family off high sugar cereals because of this. However, every now and again, a little chocolate does us no harm, no matter what time of day, but I’ll always take homemade granola over mass produced stuff. At least I can be sure of the ingredients and reign in the sugar content if I want to. Plus, I’m certain that the average chocolate cereal on the supermarket shelf does not include nutritious nuts – your granola is far superior.
Glad it’s not just me not into a sugary breakfast, but yes a treat when you want it is perfect and as I said I ended up eating this for dessert a lot. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I must admit I am the type of person that could eat chocolate for breakfast so this is ideal for me! What a lovely looking breakfast 🙂
Someone from the choccy for breakfast camp 😉 hehe. Enjoy!
I have made chocolate granola a few times in the past and it is really good. I’ve never served it with rhubarb though and I think that must be incredible!
Thanks Mandy. Glad to hear you’re a fan. Yes the rhubarb is ace 🙂
I have never heard of anything like this but wow I want it. Inspiring food x
Thanks Sisley. Chocolate granola is a whole new world!!
What a lovely combination of flavours.
Thank you Janice 🙂
That looks gorgeous. I could eat that at any time of the day. Sharing this one!
Thanks Jac. (and I did eat it anytime of day, well the leftovers anyway!!)