Easy Chocolate Grawnola

I generally eat a raw breakfast. I bulk ordered some raw buckwheat and I've been eating the 4 lbs. of it since the beginning of this month. I still have 2 lbs. left and that makes me super excited. Especially since I only paid like, $15 bucks for the all of it. I've been playing with my dehydrator a lot, and I was dying for some grawnola. I often see references to it online, but never any recipes (except for those, "just add some of this stuff together and that's it" recipes). I'm a newby when it comes to making things in the dehydrator so I need a few more specifics, pleaseandthankyou. I finally found a recipe in a book I checked out from the library, but I wasn't too happy with it so I subbed a lot of stuff (ha ha...), but it gave me a good idea of actual amounts of stuff to use and that was very helpful.

My recipe is MOSTLY raw. My coconut is toasted, because that's all I had, but feel free to use untoasted instead. I also used maple syrup because I prefer it to agave (which isn't raw either..? I'm not sure), but I really don't care if my sweetener is raw. Molecule for molecule, it's still sugar. I'm not concerned at all about it's enzymes or how my body treats it. Whether raw or refined, it's still sucrose and my body will break down the sugar the same way. However, that said, to be truly raw you can also use just dates. I also soaked my ingredients to make them easier to work with and to unlock the enzyme inhibitors.

I be soakin'.

I went ahead and let the pumpkin seeds (pepitas) and almonds soak together. The dates are in the upper left, covered with just enough water to cover, and the upper right bowl has the raw buckwheat groats in it. I let all these items soak for about two hours, but you can let them soak longer. You can also just let them soak an hour, but it needs to be at least one full hour. 

Before beginning this recipe, I drained and rinsed the buckwheat until it was no longer slimy (see, enzyme inhibitors), and I rinsed and drained the nuts as well. I also peeled the skins off the almonds. After soaking them it's pretty easy to do (the skins contain tannins that are slightly bitter and a little hard on your stomach). 

Chocolate GRAWnola:

1 c. dates, pitted

1 c. filtered water (use the date soak water first, it's nice and sweet, then use the rest regular water)
2 c. buckwheat groats
1/4 c. cacao powder
1/4 c. maple syrup
1/2 c. almonds
1/2 c. dried coconut (flakes, shredded, or chips)

1/4 c. shelled, raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/4 tsp. coconut flavor

Pinch of salt

1. Drain the nuts, seeds, and buckwheat groats.
2. In a food processor combine the dates, water, cacao, maple syrup, cinnamon, flavorings, and salt. Process until well blended (it will be watery).
3. In a large bowl, combine the buckwheat groats and cacao mixture. Chop the nuts and seeds and add those too, along with the coconut. Mix well.

4. Spread the batter into a dehydrator with parchment paper or a dehydrator with Teflex sheets. Dehydrate for 24 hours.
5. Crumble the grawnola up and dehydrate for a couple more hours (about 4). Mine is completely dehydrated at this point, if yours isn't you can let it dehydrate up to another 24 hours.
6. Remove from the dehydrator and crumble a little more. Let cool completely before placing it into a closed container for storage.

I love this best when it's in a bowl filled with sliced bananas and almond milk. I also add a little maple syrup (my almond milk is unsweetened) and some regular buckwheat krispies (recipe from Ani Phyo) to round it out. It makes the milk thick and chocolatey.

Now I'm off to experiment with more grawnola recipes!

And the book was "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw", bwahahaha!