Homemade Granola Recipe

My homemade granola recipe is easy to make, extremely versatile and adjustable to your preferences. It’s perfectly sweetened without being too sweet and will keep for weeks. Recipe includes a step-by-step video tutorial.

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

1. Combine your oats, nuts, fruit, and flax seed in a large bowl. You’ll be doing a lot of mixing, so give yourself room!
2. In a separate (medium-sized) bowl, whisk together honey, oil, brown sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk until well-combined.
3. In yet another bowl, vigorously whisk your egg white until it’s nice and frothy (about 15-30 seconds of whisking). Once frothy, stir this in with your other wet ingredients.
4. Pour honey mixture over dry ingredients and use a spatula to stir until everything is completely coated.
5. Spread evenly onto a parchment or Silpat lined cookie sheet. Bake for about 50 minutes. Let the granola cool completely after baking (important so you have nice clumps!), then break into pieces and use as desired.

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!).

Frequently Asked Questions

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!

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Granola Recipe

Here's how I make my favorite homemade granola recipe! This recipe is very adaptable and great for customizing to your preferences, and it comes together quickly with flawless results every time. Includes a video tutorial.

5 from 13 votes

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Course: Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes

Cooling Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 2 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 cups

Calories: 150kcal

Author: Sam Merritt

Ingredients

• ▢ 4 cups (320 g) old-fashioned rolled oats
• ▢ 1 cup (125 g) whole almonds (or use your favorite nut)
• ▢ 1 cup (160 g) dried cranberries (or use your preferred dried fruit)
• ▢ 2 Tablespoons ground flax seed optional
• ▢ ⅓ cup (110 g) honey
• ▢ ⅓ cup (80 ml) oil (may use avocado, canola, vegetable, or melted coconut oil)
• ▢ ⅓ cup (67 g) brown sugar firmly packed (may substitute an equal amount of coconut sugar)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 large egg white

Recommended Equipment

• ▢
  Cookie sheet
• ▢
  Mixing bowls
• ▢
  Spatula

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 275F (135C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, stir together oats, almonds, cranberries, and flax seed (if using).
  4 cups (320 g) old-fashioned rolled oats, 1 cup (125 g) whole almonds, 1 cup (160 g) dried cranberries, 2 Tablespoons ground flax seed
• In a separate bowl, whisk together honey, oil, brown sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt until well combined and uniform.
  ⅓ cup (110 g) honey, ⅓ cup (80 ml) oil, ⅓ cup (67 g) brown sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon salt
• In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk egg white until frothy (about 30 seconds) then stir the egg white into the honey mixture.
  1 large egg white
• Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and use a spatula to stir well until all dry ingredients are completely coated with the honey mixture.
• Evenly spread ingredients over prepared baking sheet. Transfer to 275F (135C) preheated oven and bake for 45-55 minutes. Granola should have slightly darkened in color and should appear dry.
• Remove from oven allow to sit undisturbed until completely cooled.
• Once granola has cooled, use your hands or a wooden spoon to break up into pieces. Use as desired.

Notes

How to Store

Homemade granola should be stored in an airtight container in a cool dry place and will keep for at least a month. Granola may also be frozen in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Nutrition

Serving: 0.25cup granola | Calories: 150kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Sodium: 54mg | Potassium: 57mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 8g | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 0.9mg

Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.

Tried this recipe? Show me on Instagram!Mention @SugarSpun_Sam or tag #sugarspunrun!

This recipe was published April 2019, I updated the post to include more helpful information in January 2023.

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