The Granola Trick That Turns Your Morning Yogurt Into The Ultimate Pick-Me-Up

The great thing about homemade granola is you can include all your favorite flavors and ingredients. With the premade, store-bought stuff, you might find yourself having to settle for things you don't love, like raisins or cashews. But, when you make it at home, don't feel like you need to limit your additions to various dried fruits and nuts. Coffee lovers will enjoy the fact that adding java to granola turns out delicious results, with a boost of energizing caffeine to boot.

There are a couple of different ways to incorporate coffee into your granola. Because excess moisture does nothing to granola except make it chewy or worse, soggy, you want to minimize the liquid. Using instant coffee granules will help you do this because you simply mix the coffee with a minimal amount of hot water and incorporate this mixture into your other wet ingredients, like oil and your sweetener of choice, which could be honey, maple syrup, or agave. 

We ranked several instant coffee brands to find the best, so you can select the right one for you. For more coffee flavor, texture, and visual appeal, you can also mix some fresh coffee grounds (not instant) into your granola. The dark flecks will surround all of your ingredients, looking extra interesting and appetizing.

There are a lot of fun and tasty ways to personalize your coffee-flavored granola including opting for a flavored instant coffee, like vanilla, caramel, and hazelnut. If you go for the latter, bump up the flavor by including toasted chopped hazelnuts into the granola. If you love caffe mochas above all other caffeinated drinks, add in some chocolate, which is a no-brainer pairing with coffee. Unsweetened cocoa powder will coat your whole batch with chocolate-y goodness; you can also incorporate chocolate chips once the granola is finished and completely cooled. Cacao nibs are another great choice which will add crunch and slightly bitter flavor notes that taste like both chocolate and coffee. These are different from raw cacao beans, which you shouldn't eat. Chopped up chocolate-covered espresso beans are an indulgent and delicious addition as well.

You can treat and serve coffee granola like any other granola recipe. It's wonderful with milk, served over yogurt, sprinkled on ice cream (coffee flavored ice cream is ideal, but be aware that there's additional caffeine in it), or just enjoyed as a mid-afternoon snack in place of your normal cup of joe. It's the ultimate pick-me-up and appetite-satisfier, in one shot.