Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Granola

I recently whipped up a batch of pumpkin spice chocolate granola. Sweet, spiced with fall flavors and super delicious! Perfect mixed in with yogurt for breakfast, or on its own for a snack. YUM!

I picked up the chalkboard top jars from Target in their dollar section and gave these as gifts to neighbors, friends and family. The recipe fills 3 small jars and 2 regular mason jars, FYI.

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Granola (recipe adapted from Iowa Girl Eats)

makes 4-1/2 cups

Ingredients

3 cups old fashioned oats
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
2 Tablespoons gluten-free ground flax seed meal (optional)
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees then line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine oats, pecans, ground flax seed meal, spices and salt in a large bowl then stir to combine.
In a separate bowl stir together remaining ingredients, except chocolate chips. Pour into dry ingredients then mix very well to coat. Pour mixture onto prepared baking sheet then bake until nuts and oats are golden brown, 25-30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes (this could be faster if you use a convection oven!). Granola will crisp as it cools.
Cool granola completely on baking sheet then stir in chocolate chips. Store granola in an airtight container or jars at room temp for 4-5 days.

Ta da! Can it get any more fall than this?! Now that I’m on a pumpkin kick, I want to try to make these pumpkin marshmallows…and this pumpkin creamer that my high school friend blogged about (she is an expat living in Scotland right now, where they don’t have the fancy flavored creamers like we do…plus, it looks a lot healthier than the jugs of stuff we have!)