By October 2021. I turned twenty-three this week. October third. Twenty-three years old. The distance between fourteen and twenty-three feels immeasurable when I think about it and exactly one continuous thing when I am in Gloria kitchen, which are both true.
James is seventy-three. He is well. He has been more careful with his health since the pandemic and it has helped, his numbers are better and he moves with intention rather than limitation. He sat at the birthday table in the collared shirt and told a story about his twenty-third birthday, which happened in 1971, and what that year was like. I listened to the whole thing and asked questions and he answered all of them. We talked for an hour after dinner about 1971 and I thought: I want to keep doing this. I want to sit at this table for as many years as I can and hear what every decade felt like from someone who lived through them all.
I made my birthday cake this year as I have for the past three years: this time a dark chocolate and espresso layer cake with mascarpone frosting. The espresso deepens the chocolate the way the bourbon deepened the sweet potato casserole, the way molasses deepens the rolls. Depth is the thing I cook toward now. Not just flavor but complexity, the thing underneath the thing.
Gloria tasted the cake and said: that is very serious chocolate. I said: I wanted serious for this birthday. She said: twenty-three is serious? I said: all of them are serious now. She looked at me. She said: yes. All of them are. Yes. They are.
The cake was the centerpiece, but the depth I was chasing — that layer-beneath-the-layer quality the espresso gave the chocolate — is something I want at the table on ordinary mornings too, not just birthdays. This dark chocolate cherry granola carries the same philosophy: the cocoa is unsweetened and serious, the dried cherries pull tart against the sweetness, and the whole thing asks you to slow down the way a good conversation about 1971 asks you to slow down. James would say it has character. Gloria would say it is very serious chocolate. They would both be right.
Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 10
Ingredients
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (60% cacao or higher)
- 3/4 cup dried tart cherries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 325°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats, pepitas, cocoa powder, and sea salt. Stir until the cocoa is evenly distributed throughout the oats.
- Add the wet ingredients. Pour the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract over the oat mixture. Stir thoroughly until every oat is coated and the mixture looks uniformly dark and glossy.
- Spread and bake. Spread the granola in an even, compact layer on the prepared baking sheet — pressing it down slightly encourages clusters. Bake for 28–32 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until the granola smells toasted and feels dry at the edges. The center will firm up as it cools.
- Cool completely. Remove from the oven and let the granola cool on the pan without stirring for at least 20 minutes. This is how the clusters form. Resist the urge to move it.
- Add chocolate and cherries. Once fully cooled, scatter the dark chocolate chips and dried tart cherries over the granola and fold gently to combine. The residual warmth should be gone before adding the chocolate so the chips stay whole.
- Store. Transfer to an airtight jar or container. The granola keeps at room temperature for up to two weeks, though it rarely lasts that long.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 285 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 40g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 60mg