Crunchy Spent Grain Chocolate Chip Granola

What’s a girl to do with 10+ cups of left over spent (cooked) grains from brewing beer (which Jacob bottled last night… 1 week from now it’ll be ready!)?

Make pancakes?

Check!

Fluffy whole wheat spent grain buttermilk pancakes

Topped with a smear of peanut butter, a slightly mashed banana, an egg and cinnamon.  Oh my oh my. 

Filling? Check!

Delicious? Check!

Probably a strange combo to readers? Check!

I followed my mom’s buttermilk pancake recipe made with all whole wheat flour, then stirred in 1/2 a cup of spent grains.  It added a nice little chew to them.

What else to do with all these grains?

Eat it by handfuls?

Check!

Then?

Make granola!

And a lot of it.

Chocolate chips.

Tons of spent grains.

Shredded coconut.

Flax seeds.

Dried cherries.

Pour on the chilled (soy)milk.

Let it soak in.

It’s necessary, this granola has major crunch!

Now it’s your turn to make granola.! You could use any grain here.  The spent grains cooked up to about the same size as cooked buckwheat, which is smaller than wheat berries.

If you use a larger whole grain (barley, wheat berries, kamut, spelt), try to break it up in your food processor slightly.  Very slightly. 

Spent Grain Chocolate Chip Granola
Makes 9 cups

Printer friendly recipe!

Ingredients

• 6 cups spent grains (or any cooked whole grain), squeeze out excess liquid – but make sure they’re still a bit wet, not dry
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup ground flax seed
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup dried cherries
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup brown rice syrup (this works really well for clumps of granola, if you substitute in maple syrup or honey you make not end up with as many large clumps)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Line a large baking sheet with low sides with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl mix together the spent grains, coconut, cherries, half the chocolate chips, brown rice syrup and vegetable oil. 
3. In another bowl stir together the flour, flax, cinnamon and salt.  Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until fully combined.
4. Spread evenly onto a baking sheet.  Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes.
5. After 1 hour reduce the heat to 275 degrees and bake another hour, stirring every 20 minutes until slightly crispy and not burned.
6. Remove from the oven and top with the remaining chocolate chips.
7. Once fully cooled store in a sealed container in the fridge.  They will harden up and get really crispy in the fridge.

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