Apple Pecan Granola

Once you make homemade granola, you may never go back!  Apple Pecan Granola is the perfect breakfast, loaded with oats, pecans, walnuts, maple syrup and the delicious combination of cinnamon and apple sauce!  Use it to top yogurt, oatmeal, plain cheerios or chex, or just eat it by the handful!

Homemade Granola

Homemade granola is a staple in our house and we alternate between our 2 favorite kinds, Apple Pecan Granola and Almond Spiced Granola.  Fresh from the oven, that apple pie aroma, and better ingredients, it really is worth making your own.  I started making my own granola over 10 years ago in my tiny studio apartment.  After reading a ton of recipes, I took what I liked to create my own versions.  I took lousy pictures with my then brand new digital camera, and it became one of my very first blog posts.

Ingredients

I’ve made too many batches of granola to count since then, updated those pictures, and still we never let the granola jar run dry.  Homemade granola is far superior to it’s store-bought counterpart.  Substitutions are easy so every batch turns out a little different.  You need to keep the wet to dry ingredients proportioned the same.  But, from there you can try different nut and seed combinations, honey instead of maple syrup, different dried fruits, make it your own!  If you want to use less nuts to make it more affordable, just sub extra oats.  Or, if you want to use more nuts to make it healthier, again, just sub less oats.

Instructions and Tips

In our house, a batch lasts us about a month, well worth the 15 minutes it takes to throw together.  Just combine all your dry ingredients in a large bowl, and mix your wet ingredients in a glass measuring cup.  You can microwave it a bit to help them combine.  Add wet to dry and stir well to combine.  Bake it on parchment paper, which really helps your nice big clusters stay intact, and you can use your parchment paper several times for making granola (go green!).  While the granola slowly bakes for 75 minutes, don’t stir it, that ruins your clusters.  And when the timer is up, just turn the oven off and leave the granola in for a few hours to cool.  Again, the clusters are forming!!

How to Use Apple Pecan Granola

We use granola to top yogurt, oatmeal or cold cereal (add some excitement and protein to cheerios or chex).  We add it to trail mix, put it on ice cream, or sprinkle it over sliced bananas or apples for a healthy kids snack.  I steal a handful when mom needs a sweet and healthy quick afternoon bite!  It’s hard to know what you are getting from the store-bought stuff, usually extra sugar and preservatives.  Plus you get the fresh baked smell in your kitchen all day.  It’s one of the kid’s favorite things to help with too, they love to measure, stir, smell, mix, and sample!

Apple Pecan Granola

Meryl Downing

Once you make homemade granola, you may never go back! Apple Pecan Granola is the perfect breakfast, use it to top yogurt, oatmeal, plain cheerios or chex, or just eat it by the handful. Made with applesauce, maple syrup, and lots of pecans!

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 15 mins

Total Time 1 hr 15 mins

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings 10 cups

Ingredients

  

• 6 c rolled oats
• 1 c pecans roughly chopped
• 1 c walnuts roughly chopped (any nuts can be substituted)
• ½ c seeds any combination of sunflower, pumpkin, flax, sesame, or chia seeds
• ½ c shredded coconut
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1 t kosher salt
• ½ c applesauce
• ½ c coconut oil
• ½ c maple syrup honey can be substituted
• 1 t vanilla extract
• ½ c raisins any combination of raisins-regular or golden, craisins, or any dried fruit

Instructions

 

• Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl (not raisins)
• Mix wet ingredients in a small glass measuring cup (coconut oil can be microwaved and then measured)
• Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well. Spread granola on two large baking sheets lined with parchment paper (can be reused again and again for granola!)
• Bake in a preheated oven at 275° for 75 minutes. When the time is up, turn oven off and leave granola in the oven all day or overnight, or at least a few hours, do not open oven or stir it (this gives you nice big clusters)
• When cooled, add dried fruit and store in a jar
• **note, the recipe can really be altered in any way as long as the wet to dry ratio remains the same, for example, if you want to make the recipe more affordable, you can use more oats and less nuts as long as it totals 8 cups, etc.

Keyword breakfast, Granola, Pecan Granola