Strawberry Shortcake Granola

An easy strawberry shortcake granola recipe that is the perfect snack.

I love early spring — there are more sunny days than gray ones and the skies are blue.

It’s also almost time for some of my favorite produce. Asparagus. Leeks. And perhaps my favorite — strawberries.

Store-bought strawberries are rarely as good as the kind you get from the farmer’s market. They’re usually bigger, whiter, and blander as opposed to the small deep red berries that come from a small grower.

But those are not early spring, so I’m still waiting. In the meantime, I’m getting my strawberries fix in other ways. Like this strawberry shortcake granola. I’m not new to turning a favorite dessert of mine into granola, so this was a fun recipe for me. It’s easy to make and different from the same fruit and nut granola you get at the store.

Even without fresh berries, this is bursting with strawberry flavor, thanks to freeze-dried strawberries. I love freeze-dried fruit for stuff this.

This is a toasted granola, and only requires a few ingredients. Butter, oats, freeze-dried strawberries, and white chocolate chips.

You’ll first toast the oats in a skillet. You want them to be nice and toasty and golden brown. You need to do this step first because once the chocolate is melted, you need to work fast to mix in the strawberries and coat the granola with the chocolate before it’s cooled.

This is good in oatmeal (yes, really) and on yogurt, but it’s honestly better just eaten as a snack. It clumps up nicely so you don’t feel like you’re eating crumbs as you do with some granolas.

It’s not the same as a strawberry shortcake made with in-season berries, but it will do to hold you over until you can get some.