Homemade Granola with Big Clusters

Homemade Granola is easier than you think to make and so delicious, a breakfast staple we always have on hand! It's high in protein, loaded with oats, nuts, seeds, coconut, and spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg!  Honey gives it those nice big clusters, and a pinch of salt gives it that salty-sweet balance! The perfect topper for yogurt, applesauce, oatmeal, ice cream and smoothies, you'll never buy store-bought granola again!  

• Homemade Granola is Seriously Amazing! - This is the best granola I've ever had! It's been a favorite in our house for years and we never let the granola jar run dry! We always have it on hand to top many variations of breakfast. Yogurt, Crockpot Steel Cut Oatmeal, and my favorite trick - add protein to plain old cereal with milk, like Cheerios or Chex! Once you've made homemade granola, you'll be hooked!

• Easy and Kids Love to Help! - Homemade granola is not hard! Mixing up a batch only takes 10 minutes (unless of course the kids are helping, then it can take a little longer!).

• A Healthy High-Protein Breakfast Staple! - With homemade granola you can control your ingredients. It's healthier, check the label on your bag from the store, often full of unnecessary sugar and mostly oats, with only a few nuts. Homemade granola is sweetened with honey, and the nuts and seeds make it nutrient dense!

• If you Love this Recipe, be sure to check out my Maple Pecan Applesauce Granola and my Zucchini Banana Bread Muffins! We make this similar Christmas Granola every December!

Ingredients & Substitutions

A well stocked pantry makes whipping up a batch of granola really easy!

• Rolled Oats - Oats are the base of granola, use regular rolled oats, not quick or steel cut oats. I like to buy them at the bulk bin at the grocery store, buy organic if you can!

• Almonds and Cashews - Making a high protein granola starts with lots of healthy nuts! Any nuts can be substituted in this recipe to make different variations. Try almonds, cashews, walnuts or pecans. Use raw baking nuts and you can decide to chop them, buy them pre-sliced, or leave them whole.

• Coconut Flakes - Adds sweetness, texture, and flavor.

• Pumpkin, Sunflower, and Flax Seeds - Another big protein source comes from the seeds. Again these are interchangeable, and you can also try subbing chia, sesame, or hemp seeds.

• Cinnamon, Ginger, and Nutmeg - Homemade granola is made super delicious from the warm and bold flavored spice combination!

• Coconut Oil - Granola needs a bit of oil as it bakes to give it the nice big clusters. Coconut oil adds flavor, but avocado oil, olive oil, or substituting a portion of the oil with applesauce is an option.

• Honey - Honey is the sweetener, and a better alternative to the high amount of sugar or corn syrup in store-bought granola. Local raw honey can also have some health benefits, so find a local supplier to support, check the farmer's market! Real maple syrup can also be substituted, but won't give you the biggest clusters like honey will.

• Salt - Don't skip the salt! It really intensifies the flavor in all the ingredients and adds that delicious balance of salty and sweet! It's so tempting to eat by the handful!

• Raisins or Any Dried Fruit - Dried fruit should be added AFTER the granola is baked and cooled. Again, do not bake the raisins, they will be as hard as rocks! Try any combination of raisins, dried cranberries, chopped apricots, dried cherries or blueberries, golden raisins, or apple chips.

See recipe card below for full quantities.

Instructions

Step 1 - Add all the dry ingredients to a large bowl and mix.

Step 2 - Combine the coconut oil (you can melt it in the microwave before measuring), honey, vanilla and salt in a glass measuring cup.

Warm in the microwave or on the stove until you can whisk it together with a fork.

Step 3 - Add the liquid ingredients to the dry, and mix really well with a spatula.

Transfer to 2 parchment paper lined baking sheets (I save and reuse my parchment paper over and over a few times just for making granola - go green!).

Step 4 - Bake at 250°F for 75 minutes. When the 75 minutes is up, turn the oven off but leave the granola in the oven for a few hours until cool, this gives you nice clusters!

Step 5 - Sprinkle with raisins or any dried fruit and store in jars.

Ways to Serve Granola

• Granola with Yogurt - We love a big bowl of granola with yogurt for breakfast, topped with berries, kiwi or pomegranate seeds! With the sweetness coming from the granola, you can buy healthier plain yogurt instead of flavored. Plain yogurt is super versatile and can be used in Protein Pancakes, Pumpkin Waffles, Avocado Bean Dip, Mediterranean Hummus, or in place of sour cream when topping tacos, Southwest Chicken Chili or Loaded Baked Potatoes.

• Oatmeal - Granola is the perfect topping for my Overnight Crockpot Steel Cut Oatmeal! Or ditch the packet and try my Homemade Instant Oatmeal!

• Add to Plain Cereal - Serve granola with milk to add extra protein to a bowl of Cheerios or Chex. Add berries or pomegranate seeds for a hearty breakfast, my kid's favorite!

• Smoothie Topping - Add a scoop of protein to your morning smoothie, and check out my method for never wasting fruit with The Smoothie Bucket!

• Ice Cream Topping - Add a sweet and crunchy bite to vanilla ice cream or ice cream sundaes. Make it a healthier treat with berries too!

• Add-In to Trail Mix - A quick trail mix made with a few handfuls of peanuts, cheerios, other nuts and seeds, raisins, chocolate chips and a big scoop of granola is a great on-the-go snack!

• Kid's Snack - Sprinkle granola over apple or banana slices with peanut butter for a quick snack.

Recipe Notes & Tips

• Don't Open the Oven to Stir the Granola! - I used to stop and stir my granola and lots of recipes will have you do this, but it's a common mistake! Letting it bake without stirring gives you better clusters.  When the timer is up, turn off the oven, but leave the granola in the oven untouched for a few hours until cooled.  Leaving your granola alone is what gives you the nice big clusters!

• Bigger Clusters - Honey Vs. Maple Syrup - Both honey or maple syrup can be used as the sweetener for granola, and both are delicious! However, granola made with honey holds together better in big clusters. So if you are going for big clusters, use honey!

• Don't Bake the Raisins! - Add them at the end, after the granola is cooled. Baking the raisins will turn them into little rocks, totally inedible! Don't make this mistake!

• Decide How Big or Small to Chop the Nuts, depending on how you like them.  You can also sub some extra oats for some of the nuts or seeds to make the recipe more affordable. Or you can use more nuts in place of some of the oats to make it more nutritious. You can substitute walnuts or pecans or really any nuts. Just keep the wet to dry proportions the same.

• Use Parchment Paper! - Parchment paper is so important in keeping your big clusters and not letting the granola stick to the pan.  I reuse my two sheets of parchment paper over and over a few times for granola!

• Granola Makes the Perfect Gift! - Every Christmas we make batches of my similar Christmas Granola and Homemade Almond Biscotti and gift them in pretty jars. Grandparents, teachers, everyone loves granola!  It's more useful than the cookie giving, and the kids really feel like they contributed to the gift.   

Tips and Lessons for Cooking with Kids

Granola is the perfect starter recipe to have the kids help, no matter how young or old they are.  Even at one or two years old, they love to measure, stir, smell and taste!  

• Let kids do it all!  They can measure, count, add, smell, stir.  You don't have to worry about them leaning over the hot stove with this recipe.
• Your kids are never too young or too old to start, as long as they can sit on the counter or pull up a stool.  
• Check out kid's cookbooks at the library, my kids were super excited about them.
• Think of all they can learn beyond the recipe.  Teach them where food comes from, and where does it go (garbage, recycling, compost).  Math and measuring, family heritage and grandma's recipes.  Safety skills like teaching little kids to stay away from a hot stove and use a knife safely.
• Clean your counters really well before you start.  If they stir like crazy and half your oats end up on the counter, just scoop them back in the bowl.
• Allow extra time!  Consider this a fun kid activity, not we need dinner on the table in 20 minutes!
• All messes can be cleaned up, and a failed recipe is not the end of the world.
• Teach your kids to cook and to eat right, learn which foods "help us grow big and strong and which foods are just for fun."  Cooking is an important life skill that is taught very little in school.  It is as important as teaching them to swim, ride a bike, manage their money, and get along with others.  It will serve them well when they are under their own roof.
• Have fun and take pictures of them!