Keto Chocolate Hazelnut Granola

Deliciously crunchy keto chocolate granola with hazelnuts. It’s like having sugar-free Nutella in your cereal bowl! Makes a great on-the-go breakfast or snack, and it’s dairy-free too.

If you haven’t yet figured out that I love the flavors of chocolate and hazelnut together, you haven’t been paying attention, my keto friends. I have so many recipes that bring together this magical combination and there is no end in sight. Can’t stop, won’t stop.

The first among them was my Keto Nutella, which I still make on a monthly basis. But this keto chocolate hazelnut granola came about pretty early on too. It’s from way back in 2012, but I hadn’t made it in a long time and decided it was time for a re-visit.

Could I improve upon my original low carb chocolate granola? Silly question, of course I could. I’ve been honing my keto breakfast making skills for over 10 years now and I often find many little ways to cut down the carbs and boost the flavor. This recipe was no exception. Oh did I mention I made it even easier too?

If you love chocolate and hazelnut together as much as I do, be sure to check out Mini No Bake Nutella Cheesecakes too!

How to make grain-free keto granola

I grew up eating plenty of granola, since back in the 80s, we considered this rich hearty cereal to be health food. Shocking when you consider that most commercial granolas have upwards of 30g of carbs per serving, and plenty of added sugars.

My mother used to make batches and batches of homemade granola, which was delicious but probably not much better than store-bought when it came to the carb count.

Going low carb seemed imply that cereal and granola was off limits to me forever and ever. But as I immersed myself in the world of grain-free and sugar-free, I quickly learned that you can fake almost anything and have it look and taste like the real thing. A lightbulb went off in my head and my first attempt, my now famous Keto Peanut Butter Granola, was an overwhelming success.

So how do you make granola without oats and honey and sugar? Easy!

Step 1: Grab some of your favorite low carb nuts and seeds. I often use almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds in my keto granola. You can even use some flaked or shredded coconut, hemp seeds, chia or flax. In this recipe, I stuck with hazelnut and almonds, to maximize the hazelnut flavor.

Step 2: Grind them up! You will want a good food processor for this, as nuts are hard to break up. Pulse until the mixture resembles oatmeal flakes with some larger pieces for texture.

Step 3: Add some additional bulk. Previously in this recipe, I used flax seed meal, but a lot of people object to flax nowadays. I still eat it sometimes but this time I added additional hazelnut meal. This recipe also takes cocoa powder to make it a chocolate granola, which also adds additional bulk.

I previously even added some melted chocolate, but I found that it burned too easily during baking. Dark cocoa powder is great for a rich chocolate flavor.

Step 4: Add the sweeteners. I know we all have our preferences for certain sweeteners but let me say that keto granola is best made with erythritol based sweeteners. Granola should be crispy, and only Swerve and sweeteners like it will bake up and be crisp. BochaSweet and allulose will both result in a much softer granola (trust me, I’ve tried!).

If you get any aftertaste with erythritol sweeteners, try using a combination of Swerve and either stevia extract or monk fruit extract. Using a combination of these helps offset the aftertaste that some people experience.

Step 5: Add some oil. It can really be any oil you prefer, including melted butter, coconut oil, avocado oil, etc. The oil will help bind the other ingredients together, allowing your grain-free granola to have some clusters and truly look like granola should.

The hazelnut oil in this recipe really punches up that hazelnut flavor.

Step 6: Bake it til you make it! Spread it out onto a parchment lined pan and bake until it’s beginning to firm up. But keep a close eye on it, and stir it every 5 to 10 minutes, to make sure the edges aren’t burning. It won’t be completely crisp at this point so I like to leave it in my warm oven for another little while, but I always stay nearby and check it frequently.

Once it does come out of the oven, let it cool properly. It won’t be completely crisp until it’s cooled.

How do you serve keto chocolate hazelnut granola?

Personally I love it best in a bowl with heavy cream drizzled over. But it’s also great just eaten dry as a snack and it travels really well.

Keep in mind that the serving sizes are small. About half a cup (or 60g if you prefer to weigh it) is a full serving. I know that doesn’t seem like much but keto granola is very nutrient dense, with plenty of healthy fats and plenty of calories, so a small bowl will fill you up quickly.

We are often fooled by the volume of our foods, and when we go keto, we need to change our perspective. Keto foods are rich and hearty, and small portions satisfy very quickly. If we are used to eating huge plates of less satiating foods, it can be easy to overeat on the keto diet.

Can you make this Keto Chocolate Granola ahead?

You bet you can! That’s one of the great things about a recipe that is baked very dry like this, as it can last up to two weeks on the counter. I store mine in an covered container to keep it fresh. I don’t recommend the fridge or freezer as they tend to introduce moisture more easily.

If you live in humid environment, make sure it really is in an airtight container to keep the moisture out of the cereal.

Guilt-free homemade chocolate cereal!

Remember when you were a kid and all the sugary cereals were at perfect kid eye-level at the grocery store? And you so desperately wanted the Count Chocola because you heard it would turn your cereal milk chocolate, but your parents wouldn’t even consider it for a moment?

Well now you get to live out that little childhood fantasy with no guilt whatsoever. This keto chocolate granola is the sort of recipe that makes me love being on a low carb diet!

Love cereal? Check out all the best Keto Cereal Recipes here!