This easy, nourishing, dark chocolate muesli with hazelnuts, and dried cherries and almonds, tastes like hot chocolate in a bowl! It’s gluten-free and absolutely delicious!
A few weeks ago, I was the lucky winner of a beautiful cookbook entitled Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by food writer and cooking instructor, Maria Speck. The giveaway was hosted by Shulie Madnick over at Food Wanderings. If you’ve never visited Shulie’s lovely blog where she shares both her favorite Mediterranean and Indian inspired recipes, along with mouth watering photographs to boot, I urge you to do so!
Back to the book…
Immediately after the UPS delivery woman left the book on my doorstep, I opened it right away, and quickly found myself in “whole grain heaven” looking at all the mouth watering pictures and recipes. For a brief moment, I felt a twinge of pity for myself {sob}, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to partake of any of the {gluten containing} recipes made with spelt, kamut, farro, barley and wheat berries.
But I quickly cheered up because there are so many gluten-free grain recipes as well, {amaranth, buckwheat, corn, millet, oats, quinoa, rice, and wild rice} that I didn’t need to feel deprived. Plus, I figured I could easily substitute any of the gluten containing recipes with gluten-free ones as well.
It was hard to know which recipe to start with, so I decided it would be fun to begin with one recipe from each category and share the delicious results with you here. So, last week I posted a survey on my Spicy RD Facebook page asking what recipe to make from the “Breakfast, Brunch, and Breads” category.
The choices were: Orange Polentina with Honey-Mascarpone Topping; Dark Chocolate Muesli with Hazelnuts; Honey-Nut Granola with Olive Oil, and Chewy Almond Butter Bars. And the winner was…
Dark Chocolate Muesli with Hazelnuts, which edged out Orange Polentina with Honey-Mascarpone topping by ONE vote.
All the recipes sounded fabulous to me, but I have to say this muesli recipe speaks to everything an antioxidant and fiber loving, gluten-free eating dietitian could wish for…whole grain oats, dried fruit, nuts, and dark chocolate.
To make it gluten-free like I used certified {purity protocol} gluten-free oats, such as Also, I didn’t have/couldn’t find a couple of the ingredients in the original recipe, so my substitutions are in parentheses.
Dark Chocolate Muesli
Ingredients
Muesli
- 1/4 cup chopped dried dates {I used dried tart Montmorency Cherries instead}
- 1 Tablespoon packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 cups gluten-free oats, not quick-cooking {I used Bob's Red Mill gluten-free oats}
- 1/4 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts
- 1/4 cup dried blueberries or raisins
- 2 1/2 ounce chocolate with 70 % cocoa content, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process (or cacao nibs
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste
- Pinch of fine sea salt
For serving
- 3 cups low fat milk {Or use nondairy alternative such as almond milk, coconut milk, or soy milk}
Instructions
- To prepare the muesli, place the dates and brown sugar in a small bowl and stir to coat the pieces. Combine all the other ingredients in a large bowl, and stir in the sugared dates.
- To heat: (Microwave) For each serving, combine 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup muesli in a small bowl. Heat on high power for 45 seconds, or until it is warmed throughout but melted drops of chocolate remain.
- To heat: (Stovetop) For each serving, heat 1/2 cup milk in a small heavy saucepan until small bubbles appear around the rim. Turn off the heat; add 1/2 cup of the muesli, cover, and let sit for not more than 1 minute so that the melted drops of chocolate remain.
Nutrition
Reprinted with permission from Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Maria Speck, copyright 2011. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.
This dark chocolate muesli was absolutely delicious!
Kind of like granola mixed in to hot cocoa…
I used the microwave method to cook mine and 45 seconds was perfect.
Each bite was a little different…
A combo of melted chocolate and chewy blueberries one bite, then crunchy nuts and cacao nibs in the next.
Delicious!
Here’s the proof…
My daughter, SiSi, declared it “cocoa oatmeal” and happily helped herself to my {2nd} bowl!
You can purchase your own copy of Ancient Grains for Modern Meals on Amazon. I hope you enjoy the recipes as much as I do!
