The first time I made homemade granola was such an experience. I made Red Truck Bakery’s famous granola and fell all the way in love.  I haven’t bought granola from the store since.  Red Truck Bakery is a famous little bakery located in the northern Virginia Piedmont not too far from my hometown.  Their cookbook is phenomenal and packed with baked goods quintessential to Virginia.  I think it’s the nostalgia for me. 

That’s how my granola journey started.  I boiled granola down to my own formula and have been making my own granola since.  This Rise & Shine Granola is essentially coffee & cacao granola.  It is packed with fiber from the nuts and the flaxseeds.  The cacao powder truly brings it all together for the perfect morning boost sprinkled on top of your yogurt or cereal.

Nuts + Seeds

This granola has everything that I think of when I think of coffee or chocolatey desserts, especially hazelnuts.  Coconut is my weakness so it was going to into my granola regardless.  Hazelnuts, walnuts, and macadamia nuts are the perfect hearty and dessert-ey combination.  The flaxseeds have so much fiber, which is perfect for breakfast.

If you’re making another granola variation, you can opt for almonds, pistachios, pecans, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, and/or sunflower seeds.

Flavor Elements

 This is the fun part.  How I’m going to flavor and sweeten my granola.  For flavors, I went with coffee (of course) and a hint of something chocolatey — cacao — but you can definitely use cocoa powder if you still want the chocolate flavor element but don’t have any cacao on hand. 

Cacao powder is more bitter than cocoa, but cacao retains much more fiber and nutritional benefits than its chocolatey friend.  In other variations, you can opt for other boosters like hemp hearts or maca powder. 

I sweetened with a combination of brown sugar, maple syrup, and honey.  Other sweeteners I’d recommend — agave or brown rice syrup.  My Rise & Shine granola is LESS sweet than I’d typically make it because I wanted the coffee-in-the-morning vibes to truly come through.  But you can adjust the sweeteners to your taste.  In my other granola recipes, I use somewhere between ¾ and 1 cup of sweetener.

Red Truck Bakery’s granola is on the sweeter side, which is why it’s so delicious. They also use more dried fruits than this version.

Dried Fruits & Other Add Ins

Dates. Love them. Dried fruits add another layer of sweetness to the granola, so keep that in mind when deciding how much sugar and liquid sweetener to use.  I find dates to be one of the sweetest dried fruits, so I didn’t use any others.

Other variations use dried cranberries, blueberries, and/or apricots.  Raisins always work pretty well.

Other Granola Ideas

Granola is so easy to make your own.  Take my pumpkin spice granola for example.  I use the same “formula” with different nuts and flavor elements.  My granola formula consists of: 1-2 cups nuts/seeds • ½-1 cup sweetener • Flavor elements/spices & a small amount of oil • 3 cups of rolled oats • Dried fruits and mix-ins