Crunchy, chewy, nutty, and sweet. This vanilla almond butter protein granola makes a nutritious and delicious breakfast or snack!
I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve posted a recipe! But since I tend to do most of my baking/cooking/experimenting on the weekends — and I was off gallivanting in Vegas on the last one — I didn’t manage to get any good eats up for you last week. My bad. But I’ll try to make it up to you this week, okay? Okay.
Today’s recipe combines two of my current obsessions — these soft and chewy granola bars (which is a recipe I’ve made at least 20+ times), and cereal. Basically, today’s recipe is those bars in cereal form. In other words, granola…
Almond Butter Protein Granola, to be more exact. And if you’re wondering why I couldn’t just crumble up one of my bars and enjoy it with some milk or yogurt, the answer is because the texture is completely different — which is kind of a big deal to a texture freak like me. Whereas the bars are softer and chewier, the granola is denser and crunchier… but not to the point where you feel like you’re in danger of cutting your gums on a jagged edge. Just crunchy enough.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m super picky when it comes to textures — sometimes even pickier than I am with tastes. When I want something crunchy, it has to be the right kind of crunchy; when I want something chewy, it has to be the right kind of chewy — catch my drift? I also prefer more complex textures over simple uniform ones, which is why every bowl of cereal I eat has around 3 or 4 different cereals mixed into it. But that’s a whole other story for a whole other day. Back to today’s granola. Did I mention it’s loaded with clusters?
It’s also a texture freak’s dream. The individual oat/granola pieces are crunchy, while the honey/almond butter/protein coating is slightly chewy — it’s basically the best of both worlds. Oh, and it doesn’t taste half bad either 😉
It’s also gluten-free, made without any refined sugars or unhealthy oils, and has a nice little protein boost thanks to the addition of protein powder — which you can easily omit if you don’t have any on hand; but it does add to both the nutrition and flavour profile. You can also easily make it vegan by replacing the honey with maple syrup and using a plant-based protein powder and dairy-free chocolate chips (I like Enjoy Life brand). And if you don’t like chocolate chips, you can sub those out for raisins… just be sure to add them after baking so you don’t end up with little burnt raisin turds in your cereal. Not that I would know or anything.
But hey, look! Delicious granola! Enjoy 😀
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Vanilla Almond Butter Protein Granola
- Total Time: 26 mins
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cup rolled oats
- 1 serving vanilla protein powder (optional)
- 2 Tbsp. ground flax
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray or line it with parchment paper or a non-stick baking mat. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add almond butter and honey, stirring until the almond butter is melted and fully combined with the honey. Stir in vanilla extract.
- Remove from heat and add oats, protein powder (if using), flax, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well and use a spatula to ensure that all of the oats are well coated.
- Spread the granola mixture over a baking sheet, leaving as many clusters as you want, and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven, stir, and bake for another 8 minutes, or until lightly golden.
- Let cool completely before adding chocolate chips and transferring to a storage container. The granola will still be slightly soft when it comes out of the oven, but it will harden up as it sits at room temperature and cools.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 16 mins
Almond butter granola – this looks amazing. I love the addition of protein powder to the mix, I always feel so guilty eating granola because it is usually so low in protein. I will have to make this with some RawFusion peanut fudge protein powder. Thank you for sharing, this looks amazing!
Visiting from Saturday Night Fever link party. Glad to hear I’m not the only one who mixes my cereals, this granola looks delicious! I co-host Sweet and Savoury Sunday and would love for you to stop by and share this and other recipes with us. Have a great day!
Could you pictures get any more gorgeous? Seriously! Amazing! And this granola sounds like the best granola ever! Wishing I had a huge bowl of it for breakfast right now 🙂 Pinned!
yum!! I always love your recipes girl!
Hi, what is the ground flax for? Also, would that mean flax seeds grounded into a powder ? I would love to make this, thanks so much for a delicious sounding recipe!
Yup! Ground flax is just flaxseeds ground up until they become a fine powder. And I add it mostly for a little boost of nutrition, and also to help the clusters happen.
I don’t eat granola often, but when I do I want it to be CRUNCHY. I bought some from the bulk bin the other day, and was so excited to get it home onto my yogurt. Sadly it was not crunchy like I had hoped. I need to just make my own, I need to make THIS!
This looks amaaaaazing. So sad story… I made my own granola and it was SO GOOD, then I photographed it for the blog and decided I hated the photos and haven’t remade it since. Wtf is wrong with me. Hopefully I get on that soon.
This looks delicious! It would be perfect on top of a big smoothie bowl. 🙂 I’d love to try it with the protein powder added in, if only I can find an *affordable* plant-based protein (any whey, casein, or dairy in general is a no-go for me, sadly).
It can definitely be tricky to find a good one. Have you tried PlantFusion? That’s a really good one, and you could probably find it a little cheaper online from places like Swanson’s.
I need to try making my own granola! It looks so easy and delicious!
I think you already know how I feel about granola: the nuttier, the better. Oh wait, that’s how I feel about practically everything.
Your pictures came out stunning! As usual, m’dear.
I love making my own granola. It’s a lot easier (and cheaper) to experiment with different flavours that way lol
Thanks for sharing!
Yummmm! I pretty much exclusively make homemade granola since nut free packaged ones are so hard to find. Occasionally I luck out and find one in stores that is safe to eat, but I find homemade ones are usually better anyway.
I know exactly what you mean. I don’t even bother looking at granolas anymore because all of them contain traces of peanuts. I do love the Enjoy Life chocolate one though!
This sounds amazing. I MUST make some this week. Thanks for the yummy recipe : )
This. Yum yum yum. Seeing as you got plant fusion, you’ll love it- it’s one of my favourite types of vanilla protein powder!
I have never made my own granola before. Too busy making muffins! Lol… I have all these ingredients on hand always. I just realized they are in most my recipes.
I would have never thought to include protein in my granola! Genius addition. I have an excessive amount of protein powder in my cupboards, but rarely use it. I need more cupboard space so I think I’m gonna have to start spiking everything with protein powder LOL
I’ve never made my own granola, but this recipe looks so simple and I actually have ALL the ingredients. I use protein powder a few times a week for smoothies, protein pancakes, and protein chia pudding. My favorites are Growing Naturals and Vega.
Crunchy, chewy, nutty, and sweet–everything a granola should be. Love the flavors and the textures you have here! I love making my own granola because I can make it just the way I like it ( a little bit of this, a little bit of that…I make sure I have the perfect ratio of crunchy to chewy) and I know exactly what’s in it. I’ve actually been looking for a protein powder so I’ll probably take a look at what some of the other readers like. And, if you have any favorites, please share! 🙂
My absolute favourite powder is Proteins+ by Genuine Health. It’s a whey, and I’ve never had any issues with it being too chalky or not wanting to blend. Plus the vanilla flavour tastes pretty fantastic 🙂
This sounds perfectly crunchy, which is perfect! I’ve been meaning to make granola since buying it costs so much (I’m being cheap these days), but I just have to make the time. Love the addition of protein powder in this recipe <33
Is it bad that I look at these photos and think about the clean up afterwards? It’s so fun to take photos with the ingredients scattered about (or in this case..all of the granola scattered), but then you have to clean it up. Life is hard haha.
Fortunately this granola looks amazing and all the time was well spent! 😉
I was just looking up granola recipes today! This one sounds amazing. Can’t wait to make it!
I do use protein powder quite often… Mainly coz I like the taste! I especially like vanilla protein powder added to smoothies and oats
Looks incredible! I’ve always been intimated by making my own granola, but this looks easy enough. I think I can handle it 🙂
It’s really not bad at all! You just have to make sure to stir it in the middle and watch it towards the end so it doesn’t burn.
I have been thinking about making some granola since I have so many unused oats haha, I am totally trying this out this weekend! Perfect for my work week too!
I have been off my granola kick for a while, but this may just bring it back in full force.
Looks DELICIOUS! I am addicted to granola lately! Just made a batch of banana-cacao-quinoa granola and I’m eating way too much! Oh, first world problems, haha! YUM!
so your vegas trip really did affect our stomachs. haha. We are lost without your weekly recipes. But this makes up for it! xoxo YUMO
I am on a huge granola kick! I’ve never made it with a nut butter like this but it looks like it creates those incredible clusters. And I know what you mean about cutting your mouth with crunchy cereal, ha! So true.
Oh gosh this recipe looks fab.
I love the addition of protein powder….and most importantly almond butter. I need to try this out. Such a good option to bring for work.
Okay, don’t ask me why, but when I read your intro I added “caution” in there for some reason, so it’s like I knew before even reading the recipe that it was going to be addicting! As if I needed another reason to eat yogurt. 😉
Man oh man have I been enjoying granola lately. I had it at the airport while waiting for my flight and from there I was obsessed. I was munching on it while I was roaming around North Carolina.
The clusters definitely got me. I don’t like it grainy.. I need the clusters!
My last trip is what got me back on the cereal bandwagon again too… I was fine going without it, and all it took was one taste to get me completely obsessed again 😆
I haven’t made homemade granola in ages – it is better than the storebought stuff though! As for protein powder, I love my North Coast Naturals whey.
Gross burnt raisin turd – next time someone pisses me off, that will be my insult of choice 😉