Homemade Granola Recipe
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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
- Combine your oats, nuts, fruit, and flax seed in a large bowl. You’ll be doing a lot of mixing, so give yourself room!
- In a separate (medium-sized) bowl, whisk together honey, oil, brown sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk until well-combined.
- 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.
- Pour honey mixture over dry ingredients and use a spatula to stir until everything is completely coated.
- 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
Homemade granola has a great shelf-life and lasts a long time. It will keep for several weeks. Store it in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. You can also refrigerate or freeze the granola to extend its shelf life. Refrigerated it will keep for several months, and frozen it will keep for about 6 months.
Yes, you’ll have gorgeous granola clusters when you’ve followed this granola recipe properly (though you can break the pieces up as small as you’d like). You’ll notice when you finish baking, it’ll be baked together into a solid sheet. This will need to be broken up (after cooling!), and as you break it those gorgeous clusters will form.
If the recipe is followed properly it should turn out crisp and beautiful every time. If yours is still soft, most likely one of two things went awry. First, make sure you bake your granola completely. It should be turning a nice golden color and should be toasted (and smell toasted and wonderful, too). If yours is still pale or simply looks wet or not yet finished baking, just keep it in the oven longer. Second, make sure you let it sit after baking until it’s completely cooled. The granola will become crisp as it cools and disturbing it early could diminish its crispness.
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
Equipment
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
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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
This recipe was published April 2019, I updated the post to include more helpful information in January 2023.
Wow! This recipe came out great and is now THE recipe I use for making granola. I love the flavors of the cinnamon and vanilla that standout nicely and the clumps that you get when breaking it up after it cools. I followed the recipe as written with 2 additions. For the oil I used Coconut Oil and added 1 cup of Bob’s Red Mill Unsweetened Coconut Flakes and 1/2 cup of whole raw cashews.
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Pamela! I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much! 🙂
Could I leave out the egg white as I’m fasting. Also could I use honey as the only sweetener?
The egg white is essential for helping make this granola recipe crisp and helping it bind together into those gorgeous, munch-able clusters. So I’m not sure I would recommend omitting the egg white. 🙁
Ok , Thank you!
I’m a bit confused because I first watched the YouTube video, but the ingredients shown there are different from the ones listed here. Also, I’m not sure if the fat quantity is correct, it has an odd flavor, even though I used canola oil.
Hi Valeria! I’m not sure I follow. The ingredients in the video are the same as written here. What odd flavor did it have? Was your oil bad?
Since “Pumpkin Spice Season” is upon us I made mine pumpkin spice granola by substituting the cinnamon for pumpkin pie spice and the flax for crushed pumpkin seed kernels (pepitas). Also the whole almonds for sliced, as said this is a very versatile recipe. I love and appreciate all your recipes Sam! Keep up the great work!
Lynne
Oh I love that, it sounds amazing! Thank you for sharing your modifications, Lynne! 🙂
absolutely incredible, easy to follow, easy to customize. I don’t know if I can go back to store bought granola after this recipe!
We are so happy to hear it, Jori! 😀 Enjoy!
Excellent!!!
I love this recipe. The proportions are really good and baking at a lower temperature means I can bake the dried fruit and nuts, along with the oats.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Tami! 🙂
Hi Sam,
Do you have any suggestions for how to make this with a concentrated liquid stevia? Think it will have the same texture? Can’t wait to try this!
Hi Laura! I am not familiar with using concentrated liquid stevia so I can’t say for sure how it would turn out. Let me know how it goes if you do try it! 🙂
Could you omit the sugar all together and use honey alone?
Hi Brianne! I’m not sure how it would turn out. It could be worth experimenting with. I would probably reduce the honey a little bit. If you try it, please let me know how it turns out. 🙂
Can I omit the dried fruit?
Sure thing. 🙂
Do you think you can create a chocolate granola recipe using cocoa powder?
Hi Jen! I haven’t tried it to say exactly how to do it, but I think it could work. 🙂
Can I half the recipe to make a smaller batch? Would it still be 50 min at 275 if I do so? Thank you!
Hi Chris! The bake time will be reduced, but not in half. I would probably start checking around 35 minutes. 🙂
I love granola I have made a few other recipes, but I was never happy with any of them. Your is honestly the best!!! I will definitely be making this again!!!!
Thanks so much for the review, Ines! So happy you enjoyed the granola ❤️