Toast your own nutty, chewy granola
Easy Homemade Granola is chockfull of healthy oats, nuts and seeds. It’s amazingly easy to make – just stir together the dry ingredients, drizzle on the wet ingredients and pop in the oven for the most delicious granola that you can imagine.
One taste and you’ll never go back to the over-priced store-bought variety.
How do you like your granola?
Granola lovers tend to fall into one of two groups. One group likes the granola to be chunky, providing prized pieces for munching – like cookies.
The other group prefers the granola to be loose with very little clumping.
My preference for the granola is the chunky type and somewhat tender type. A secret to producing chunky granola is to add a beaten egg white to help bind the ingredients. To produce granola that was somewhat tender, I used quick oats as opposed to the traditional old-fashioned variety.
This Easy Homemade Granola is my go-to breakfast and snack for any time. It’s absolutely delicious. For an added treat, I like to serve the granola with yogurt. I’ll never buy store-bought granola again.
Chula King is the blogger behind Pudgefactor.com.
Easy homemade granola
Yield: 16 servings
3 cups quick oats, divided
1 cup pecan pieces, lightly toasted
1 cup chopped almonds, lightly toasted
1⁄2 cup pumpkin seeds
1⁄2 cup sunflower seeds
1⁄4 cup sesame seeds
1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt
1⁄2 cup (3.75 ounces) light brown sugar
1⁄4 cup honey
1⁄4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg white, beaten until frothy
1 cup dried cranberries
Preheat oven to 300°F. Line a large-rimmed baking sheet with non-stick aluminum foil or parchment paper. Set aside.
Process 1 1⁄2 cups of the quick oats in food processor fitted with steel blade for 10 seconds.
Combine processed oats, remaining 1 1⁄2 cups of quick oats, pecans, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, salt, brown sugar, honey, vegetable oil and egg white in a large bowl.
Transfer to prepared baking sheet; spread out as evenly as possible.
Cook for 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Top with dried cranberries. Stir to combine. Spread mixture as evenly as possible, pressing mixture with back of turner.
Return to oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven. Allow to cool for 45 minutes. Break up granola. Store in an airtight container.
Chula’s Tips
● Granola typically uses old-fashioned oats. You could definitely use old-fashioned oats in this recipe. The resulting texture would be a bit less tender with old-fashioned oats.
● Toast the pecan pieces in a 350°F oven for 8 minutes. Allow to cool.
● Toast the almonds in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.
● Rather than vegetable oil, feel free to use olive oil or coconut oil.
● The egg white helps to bind the ingredients together, producing a granola that clumps together. If you prefer a less clumpy granola, you can omit the egg white.
● Rather than dried cranberries, feel free to use raisins or a dried fruit of your choice or omit the fruit all together.