Healthy Homemade Granola: Let me tell ya, once you make your own homemade granola at home, you’ll never want store-bought again! To be honest, this recipe exceeded my expectations and it’s made with real ingredients. It’s slightly sweet, crunchy, and in perfect clusters. I love using it to top yogurt, smoothies, or by the handful!
what’s in the healthy homemade granola?
One of the best things about this recipe is that you can customize it to make it your own. You can add different seeds (flax, pumpkin, sesame, chia) or other fun add-ins like chocolate chips or cranberries! This is a great recipe to go-with-the-flow and add what you want or already have in your house!
Oats: Instant or quick oats are the base of this healthy homemade granola recipe. Quick oats are typically smaller, oat flakes that will bake up better than whole oats (in my opinion)! When baked, they get to be the perfect crunchy texture.
Almonds: I chose to use crushed almonds in this recipe, but you can use any nuts of your choosing. I personally think crushing them or lightly chopping them in a food processor gives the best texture.
Peanut Butter: I use peanut butter in my recipe, but you can always leave this out or substitute almond butter! But my philosophy is: peanut butter makes almost everything better!
Maple Syrup: This recipe calls for a small amount of maple syrup for natural sweetness, but you can always use honey as well!
Ghee: I find that ghee gives such a wonderful buttery flavor to so many things! If you prefer to use another oil, you can use coconut oil, as long as it’s room temperature.
Other Add-Ins: Chocolate chips, cranberries, raisins, mixed nuts- anything!
how to make sure your granola clusters:
After fully mixed, your granola will have a texture that is slightly wet but not fully combined. This is exactly what you want! It will begin still to stick when pressed together on the pan. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and add your granola to your pan in the center. Make a circle or rectangle with the contents and gently press your granola mixture together and into the pan. This will encourage clumping. After baked, use a fork and gently crack the granola to break into larger pieces. Viola, perfect clustery granola pieces!
Healthy Homemade Granola
Equipment
- Sheet Pan
Ingredients
- 2 cups instant or quick oats
- 1/2 cup almonds crushed or slivered
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup peanut butter or almond butter slightly melted works best
- 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1.5 tablespoons ghee room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional Add-Ins:
- seeds flax, chia, pumpkin, sesame
- raisins
- cranberries
- chocolate chips
- goji berries
- cacao nibs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Low heat will prevent too much browning.
- Start by mixing all ingredients in a large bowl until everything is well incorporated. The mixture should be slightly wet but won't fully stick together until added to the pan.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the mixture to the baking sheet and press it together in the shape of a rectangle or a circle. The goal is to not have any pieces spread out. At this point, it should be sticking together more. This will encourage clustering to form.
- Bake 17-20 minutes making sure it isn't getting too brown. It should begin to dry out and get crunchy when it's almost done.
- Once done, let it cool. Use a fork to gently crack the large cluster into smaller granola clusters. Store in an air-tight container and enjoy!