A Homemade Cinnamon Granola Recipe With Pecans and Dark Chocolate Chips

I found a recipe for some cinnamon granola that sounded just wonderful; only problem was that when I went to create a recipe for it in my Weight Watcher's app it was really high in points.  So as I was constructing it I began making more and more changes-- in the end I did end up with a cinnamon-y, low-point granola (4 points per 1/4 cup serving). 

 I use my 1/4 cup of granola each day as a topping for my fresh fruit and non-fat Greek yogurt bowls.  This granola was more chewy than crunchy like I'm used to but I ended up really liking the texture and it has a lot of flavor too. 

Want to make some yourself? It's easy!

Ingredients:

Dry

6 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup unsalted pecans

1 cup sweetened coconut (I could NOT find unsweetened coconut anywhere in our grocery store!)

1/2 brown sugar; unpacked

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

6 Tablespoons dark chocolate morsels (though any flavor you prefer is fine!)

Wet

1/2 cup lite maple syrup

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon maple extract

2 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients (if you want crunchy chunks of chocolate don't add the morsels in; I chose to add them in the first step and let them melt through the granola but they'd be delicious as an unexpected added crunch too!).

In a small bowl whisk all the wet ingredients together.

Pour the wet over the dry and mix well.  At first it might not seem like you have enough wet to moisten everything in the bowl but I promise you do; you just have to mix it a bit.

Once everything looks a bit "wet" spread the mixture out on a rimmed cookie sheet (I used parchment paper to make clean up a bit easier. 

Bake for 25-20 minutes stirring at the 15 minute mark.  

I know it doesn't show well in the photos but you'll see the oats turn a nice light brown color and everything will start to look a bit toasted.  You're just trying to cook out the moisture.  Once the granola is done you want to let it cool on the cookie sheet.  If you didn't want your chips melted throughout the granola you'd want to sprinkle them on once the granola is cooled. 

I store my granola in a gallon sized freezer bag in our pantry though a quick Google search did say you might want to store it in the fridge if it's warm in the house to keep the chocolate chips from melting and being soft. 

Linking up with: Fine/Whatever, Weekly Link party,