One of the hardest things to adjust to when switching to a keto diet is giving up all those carb-filled, crunchy breakfast foods and snacks. This keto-friendly granola is not only low carb, sugar free and grain free, it’s also nutritious, delicious and crunchy! I eat it with CoYo for breakfast or as a dessert or snack and my Mum has been enjoying it too since being diagnosed Pre-Diabetic.
Delivering On A Promise I Made
After sharing photos of my CoYo and Granola bowls on social media, I have had quite a few messages from people wanting the recipe for this deliciously crunchy, low carb snack.
I have been promising to share our keto granola recipe for some time now, and this week while my parents were visiting, I had the perfect opportunity to document how to make this delicious treat and how we adapt the process for somebody with sensory sensitivities.
Usually my Mum makes it at her house and brings it over, but this week she had forgotten to pack it in before leaving home, so we made the granola together and took loads of photos throughout the whole process.
Please note that this recipe is not my own invention, it is based on this keto granola recipe from the Sugar Free Londoner. We’ve made a few changes to the original recipe, so today I’m sharing the way we usually make it with some notes on alternatives we have tried.
If you’re on the ketogenic diet, do subscribe to Katrin’s blog though, it’s packed full of fantastic recipes to help make keto enjoyable and keep you on track.
Equipment Needed For This Recipe
- a kitchen scale, measuring cups and spoons
- a small bowl to measure dry ingredients in
- a small bowl or measuring jug to measure wet ingredients in
- a sharp knife and chopping board or a food processor
- a large mixing bowl and a spatula or an electrical mixer
- a baking tray lined with parchment/baking paper
- a cooling rack
- airtight containers to store the granola in
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Ingredients For Crunchy Keto Granola
Start by preheating the oven to 150*C while you prepare the following ingredients.
- 1 cup (100g) walnut halves
- 1 cup (100g) pecans
- 1 cup (150g) almonds
- 1/3 cup (40g) milled flax/linseed
- 1/3 cup (65g) pumpkin seeds
- 1/3 cup (65g) sunflower seeds
- 1/3 cup (30g) protein powder*
- 1.5 cups (90g) unsweetened coconut
- 6 Tbsp (90g) Erythritol
- 1/3 cup (80g) smooth almond butter
- 1/3 cup (80ml) water
- 1 Tsp (5ml) vanilla extract
- 4 squares (40g) Lindt 90% chocolate
* We use unflavoured Beef Isolate to avoid whey and soy protein, we have also used 100% beef collagen powder which works just as well.
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Method For Making Crunchy Keto Granola
Pulse the walnuts, pecans and almonds in a food processor. Don’t make them too fine, stop when they’re in large pieces to provide crunch.
You can use a smooth edged knife to cut them on a wooden chopping board if you cannot handle the noise of a food processor:
Hold the tip on the board and see-saw the handle up and down over the nuts to chop them. This method doesn’t make much noise, so that’s how we did it.
Ideally you want to buy milled flax or linseed as they are difficult to chop by hand. We were unable to find any this week so we used whole seeds.
Pulse the flax, pumpkin and sunflower seeds in a food processor. Don’t make them too fine, stop when they’re still in large pieces.
You can also use a smooth edged knife to cut them on a wooden chopping board in the same way as described above. This is how we did it.
Make sure to buy unsweetened coconut. Shredded coconut or coconut flakes work well.
As mentioned above, we usually use Beef Isolate, but since we were unexpectedly making the granola at my house and didn’t have all the correct ingredients on hand, we used beef collagen this time and it worked just as well.
Pour all the measured dry ingredients, except the chocolate, into your large mixing bowl and stir well with a spatula.
We use a ceramic bowl to measure the almond butter and then add the water and vanilla extract to it.
The water helps to get every last drop of nut butter out of the bowl and also helps disperse the vanilla extract more evenly.
Pour all the measured wet ingredients into your large mixing bowl with the dry ingredients and mix it well with the spatula. It should be quite sticky. If dry add a tablespoon of water.
Tip the granola mixture out onto a large baking tray lined with parchment paper and smooth it down with your spatula. Press it down firmly.
Bake for 20-35 minutes or until golden brown. Turn the baking tray halfway through cooking to ensure it bakes evenly.
Remove from oven and place on cooling rack.
Once cold, cut into bars or little pieces. You could break it with your hands if it’s not uncomfortable for you.
Cut the chocolate into small pieces and add it to the granola. Store in an airtight container. It will remain deliciously crunchy for a couple of weeks before it starts softening.
Some Helpful Tips
If it turns out that your granola isn’t crunchy, this probably just means that it didn’t dry out enough in the oven. Try baking it for longer so that all the moisture is evaporated before you put it out on the cooling rack. Every oven is slightly different, depending on oven size and air circulation, etc, so you might have to adjust a little until you find what works best with your oven.
To make your granola last longer, cut the baked sheet into large granola bars, which can be stored in airtight containers until more granola is needed. This way less surface area is exposed to the air and the granola will stay crunchy longer.
To avoid hurting your hands by breaking the granola bars manually, try cutting them with a knife instead.
When cutting the bars to make the crumbly granola for the week ahead, use a large knife and cut it into strips first, then cut the strips into little pieces. See photos below:
Cutting Granola Bars Into Strips
Cutting Granola Strips Into Pieces
Delicious, Crunchy Keto Granola
Alternatives And Substitutions
The original recipe used freeze-dried berries instead of the chocolate. You could also add cinnamon if you’d like a more spiced flavour.
You can switch out any of the nuts or seeds for others you prefer – the idea is to keep the quantities of wet and dry ingredients the same though.
So if you take out 30g of dry ingredients, replace them with 30g of dry ingredients. We have done this successfully with the nuts and seeds as well as the protein source and sweeteners.
I hope you will enjoy this granola as much as our family does. Let me know in the comments below if you try it or did something different.
And remember to stop by Katrin’s blog for loads of delicious keto recipes!
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Can we eat this granola on low histamine diet as I thought nuts are high histamine? I’m desperate for some breakfast ideas. I live on chia pudding.
Hi Rebecca, it would depend on each case – your personal histamine load. At my worst I couldn’t eat nuts, but I can at the moment. As you said, nuts are not low histamine and many of us will struggle with eating nuts if our histamine load is already high. I have now got my histamine issues under control and am able to eat higher histamine foods regularly without any reactions. I still avoid peanuts, but eat almonds and brazil nuts daily and a little of this granola every week too. So far so good. I’d recommend trying various nuts – one type at a time – to see if you react and then use just the ones you find safe. You could swap out the others from the recipe and just substitute the same amount of your safe ones instead. Or skip the nuts and just use the seeds if you are able to eat seeds – again, substitute the same amounts of dry ingredients for safe dry ingredients and same amounts of wet ingredients for wet ingredients – it should still come out pretty well. I know how tough it is – I was so happy when I could finally eat something crunchy!
I also use most of nuts and pumpkin seeds in my cereal and porridge that you mentioned in your recipe. When I use nuts and pumpkin seeds in my cereal, I always wash them before put in my cereal or porridge as Katheryn mentioned in her website (https://www.healingcfsme.com/) Dry nuts and seeds can carry all kind of living organisms on them. It is a good practice to wash them before you eat or use in other dishes such as salads.
Thank you for sharing, it’s a really good idea to wash the nuts and seeds, I’ve been reading about that recently myself.