My Favorite Granola Recipe
The crispy, cluster-y, and far less chewy sister to my granola bars, this granola recipe checks all the boxes for a crave-able homemade granola. It’s lightly sweetened and not too sweet, comes together in a hurry, and is so customizable you can likely make something in your pantry work right now for this recipe. It’s also much less expensive to make than buying a bag from the grocery store, and will keep for weeks!
Why You’ll Love This Granola Recipe
Perfectly sweetened. One of my biggest disappointments when buying store bought granola (besides all the mystery additives) is it always winds up being a sugar bomb. Clearly I love my sugar, but there’s such thing as too much when it comes to granola. This recipe is flavorful and sweet, but it’s not overwhelmingly so. Practically foolproof. Follow the instructions for granola that comes out golden in color and perfectly crisp and cluster-y every time. The recipe also includes a video tutorial, if this is your first time making this! Versatile. This recipe is extremely adjustable and adaptable. Substitute your favorite variety of nut or dried fruit. Use your oil (oil or melted coconut oil) of choice. Swap the brown sugar for coconut sugar. It’s extremely adjustable to your dietary needs and personal preferences.
What You Need
While the ingredients that I personally prefer are shown and listed below, you’ll see that there are plenty of substitutions that you can make in order to make granola your way.
Oats. Old-fashioned oats work best here, they’re heartier than their quick/instant counterparts and will give you a granola that’s cluster-y and substantial rather than crumbly and too dry. Oil. A neutral oil works well here. I personally prefer avocado oil to seed oils like canola or vegetable. Alternatively, melted coconut oil works well, just note that some coconut oils will impart a coconut flavor (a plus, if you ask me). Melted butter could alternatively be used, but the granola tends to brown faster and won’t keep as long. Sweetener. I use a blend of brown sugar and honey. If you don’t want to use refined brown sugar, you can substitute it with coconut sugar. Egg white. The egg white is essential for helping make this granola recipe crisp (it’s used for similar reasons in my candied almonds) and helping it bind together into those gorgeous, munch-able clusters. Dried fruit. I used dried cranberries, but raisins, chopped dried apricots, coconut flakes, dried cherries or dried apples or dried goji berries would work well, too! Nuts. Almonds are a popular, basic choice, but cashews, pecans, walnuts, or really basically any nut will work well here. Vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt all add wonderful depth of flavor to my granola recipe.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Homemade Granola
SAM’S TIP: Pay attention to the visual and scent cues when cooking your granola to tell that it’s done! The nuts should smell toasted and the granola should be a beautiful light golden color (but not burned!). I love keeping this on hand for sprinkling over yogurt or just for a quick easy snack, and with all the different add-in options my household never gets bored of it. Enjoy! Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜 This recipe was published April 2019, I updated the post to include more helpful information in January 2023.
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