Homemade Granola

Once you try homemade granola, you'll want to make it over and over again.

This simple granola recipe comes together in under an hour and gives you golden, crunchy clusters that make a bowl of yogurt feel like an actual treat.

It's delicious with milk, yogurt, or eaten straight from the jar!

Why I Make This Recipe

With the cost of groceries ever on the rise, I've been feeling more inclined to make most of my food from scratch.

One store-bought product that I've wanted to stop buying is granola.

When testing recipes for my ideal granola, it was important to me to figure out how to make granola clusters. I love those clumps of crunchy oats in my yogurt.

To learn how to do this, I read an article from The Kitchn in which the author tested 9 different ways to get granola to clump.

I knew I didn't want to deal with egg whites for this recipe, so I tested making granola with oat flour, almond flour, baking at a low temperature, and not stirring the mixture while it cooked.

After testing various methods, I decided I preferred almond flour and baking at a low temperature without stirring.

Five batches later, I feel like I've made my best homemade granola recipe, and it tastes better than store-bought granola!

This has easily become one of my favourite breakfast recipes, and I love putting together a batch on the weekend so I can enjoy it all week. It works really well in a granola parfait or added to a Greek yogurt bowl.

Ingredients and Substitutions

This recipe can be easily customized to suit your preferences.

Feel free to use any nuts (like pecans, walnuts, pistachios) or dried fruits (like cherries, pineapple, dates) that you like, or leave them out entirely.

Just make sure to add more of the ingredients you want to make up for the ingredients you remove.

Otherwise, your recipe will yield fewer servings than mine.

• Rolled Oats: also called old-fashioned oats. Don't use steel-cut oats or quick oats in this recipe.
• Almond Flour: an alternative flour made from finely ground blanched peeled almonds. This helps the granola clump into clusters. You can substitute oat flour, but the flavour isn't as sweet as almond flour.
• Salt: a little bit helps to bring out the flavours of the other ingredients
• Sliced Almonds: adds crunch, and can be substituted with any other nut or omitted. If you can't find sliced almonds, try slivered almonds or chop whole almonds into pieces with a sharp knife.
• Coconut Oil: I used virgin coconut oil, but if you don't like the flavour, you can try an oil with a neutral flavour (like light extra virgin olive oil).
• Dried Cranberries: I like the tangy pop these provide, but you can omit them or use another dried fruit like raisins.
• Pumpkin Seeds: these are green pumpkin seeds, which have been hulled (also called pepitas). I add these for more crunch, but they can be substituted with more nuts or omitted.
• Dried Apricots: adds sweetness and a pop of colour to the granola. Substitute with any dried fruit or omit them.
• Maple Syrup: I prefer maple syrup for this recipe because it adds sweetness, helps to bind the granola together, and doesn't carmelize as quickly as honey. Look for real maple syrup, not maple-flavoured pancake syrup. You can try substituting with honey or agave syrup, but keep an eye on the granola as it bakes and watch for burning.
• Brown Sugar: Adds sweetness and texture to the granola. Substitute with regular white sugar, if desired.
• Vanilla Extract: Adds flavours to the granola. Substitute with almond extract.

This recipe has not been tested with all possible substitutions or variations. Making changes may alter the taste, texture, or overall outcome. If you try a different ingredient, please share in the comments!

See the recipe card for the complete ingredient list and recipe instructions.

Variations

Here are a few common flavour combinations that you might enjoy.

• Maple Pecan granola: swap the almonds for chopped pecans, which pair really well with the maple syrup in this recipe. If you have maple sugar, substitute it for the brown sugar for extra maple flavour! This granola works really well in my maple parfait recipe, too!
• Blueberry Almond granola: swap the dried cranberries for dried blueberries, which are tasty with the almonds in this recipe.
• Cinnamon Raisin granola: Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon into the dry ingredients before adding the syrup. Swap the dried cranberries for raisins.

If this recipe is too sweet and sugary for your liking, try my toasted muesli recipe instead. It has no added sugars at all.

How to Make Granola

This recipe takes very little effort to make, but it's important to watch everything carefully as it cooks to avoid burning the granola.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 300°F (150 °C) and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Step 2: Mix oats, almond flour, salt, almonds, cranberries, pumpkin seeds and apricots together in a large bowl.

Step 3: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine coconut oil, maple syrup and sugar, and whisk until sugar dissolves and the mixture is very warm. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.

Step 4: Pour the syrup over the oat mixture and stir until combined. Make sure that all of the dry ingredients are coated with syrup and sticky.

Tips for Success

• Rolled oats (old-fashioned oats) give the best texture to this granola.
• Do not walk away from the coconut oil sugar syrup mixture as it's cooking, or it may burn. Whisk frequently while cooking.
• For crispier granola, spread the oat mixture in a thin, even layer before baking.
• For chewy granola, spread the oat mixture in a thick, even layer before baking.
• A note about storage: If you leave this granola uncovered in damp or humid weather, it tends to get soggy quickly (I learned this the hard way). Be sure to get it into an airtight container as soon as it's completely cooled.

Common Questions

I recommend whipping up a batch of this homemade granola on the weekend so that you can have an easy breakfast option during the week.

If you try making this, let me know in the comments!