
Malted chocolate buckwheat granola
My formative years in America led to an obsession with malted chocolate milkshakes. In fact malted chocolate anything. I don’t go for the milkshakes much any more, but I still crave that chocolate and malt combo. This is my solution, a health-packed granola, which has the kickback of creating a chocolate malt milkshake in the bottom of my bowl.
You can use more maple syrup in place of the barley malt here, but I love the malty taste that it adds. Barley malt syrup can be found in all health food shops and is a naturally processed sweetener, made up of about 50 per cent maltose, a sugar which is only about one-third as sweet as white sugar. It still retains many nutrients from the barley grain from which it was made, and this type of complex sugar takes longer to digest, so it won’t give you the sugar highs and lows of a Mars bar.
This granola is great for a quick sweet snack – I eat it on its own with almond milk and a scattering of raspberries – but it’s just as good with yoghurt or on top of a bowl of porridge to liven things up a little.
Keeps for up to two months in an air tight container.
MAKES A GOOD JARFUL (ABOUT 800G)
300g rolled oats 200g buckwheat
100g dried fruit (I use coconut, chopped dates, raisins or chopped apricots)
4 tablespoons cocoa powder 30g chia seeds
125g pecans
60ml maple syrup
4 tablespoons barley malt syrup
60ml melted coconut oil
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4 and get all your ingredients together.
In a generously sized bowl, mix the oats, buckwheat, dried fruit, cocoa powder and chia seeds. Roughly chop the pecans and add these too.
Put the maple syrup, barley malt syrup and coconut oil into a pan and warm through.
Pour the syrup mixture over the oat mixture and mix until it’s all coated. Then put on a large baking tray or two smaller ones and squish it all together with your hands to form little bundles of granola.
Put into the oven for 5–10 minutes, then take the granola out and use a spoon or spatula to roughly break it up a bit. Put back into the oven for a further 5–10 minutes.
It’s done when it starts to form lovely crunchy bundles. The dark colour from the cocoa will mean it’s easy to overcook, as you won’t be able to see, so if anything take it out a little earlier if you think it’s ready.
Comments
Posted by Debra Allen at 2:04 on the 14.11.20
I’ve just made this for a Christmas present, how long will it keep?
Posted by Anna at 10:05 on the 09.12.20
Hi Debra – hope they go down well. It will last two months at least, if kept in an air tight container. AJ x
Posted by Jen Plank at 9:52 on the 26.11.20
Smells absolutely divine. I had to improvise with quinoa instead of buckwheat but it’s lovely, light and crispy
Posted by Susie at 9:25 on the 19.12.20
Hi Anna and good people
Any ideas for a gluten free version that isn’t only buckwheat? I see another reader tried quinoa – how would you do that? I’ve never tried quinoa in granola before…
Thanks heaps
Posted by Cherie Watts at 12:10 on the 02.01.21
Hi Anna! This is an amazing recipe! I’ve tried it three ways in as many days, and my work colleagues are grateful to be the guinea pigs! I overcooked the first batch because it wasn’t going “crunchy” while still hot from the oven, but now that I’ve worked out it goes crunchy when cool, it’s been perfect! We used some for dessert tonight with fresh locally grown mangoes, frozen raspberries, and baked rhubarb, with cream and Greek yoghurt – it was an eclectic but exquisite combination.
Thank you for this recipe – I will be using it for years to come!
Posted by Puja at 7:32 on the 09.01.21
Hi Amy, This looks really good! Wondering if I can substitute blackstrap molasses for the barley syrup?
Posted by Maria O’Regan at 10:08 on the 23.03.21
Dear Anna I am keen to try this but not familiar with buckwheat. Is it the hard almost pyramid like grains you use or is it a flakes version