Homemade Granola (and my easy recipe formula)

I guess I’ve been a granola cruncher since childhood, mostly because my mom wasn’t the type to buy “fun” cereal. When marshmallows and chocolate aren’t on your breakfast option list, you’re left with granola and oatmeal for your cereal choices. And granola always ranks higher than oatmeal.

I started making it when I was about 12 and have made it consistently ever since. I’ve bought granola only a few times, mostly when traveling. It always seems overly sweet and one dimensional— mostly oats and not much dried fruit. And, it’s expensive.

Since I’ve been making it so long, I’ve settled on a way to make it quickly and easily so that it’s a routine task and not a process. Here’s how I do it:

8 c. dry ingredient

1 ½ c.-2 c. wet ingredients

And there you go. That’s basically it.

But to break it down to specifics:

I usually use 4-5 cups of oatmeal, then 3-4 cups total of the other ingredients to get to 8 cups.

Nuts, all kinds

Oatmeal or any other “rolled” grains (rye, barley, etc)

Seeds–sunflower, pumpkin, etc.

Small seeds–sesame, ground flaxseed, hemp hearts, etc (use up to ¼ c of each per batch)

Coconut

Wheat Germ

Oat bran

Cornmeal (a little goes a long way, too much of it will feel like sand in your teeth)

Millet (not my favorite; use only if you enjoy the sensation of eating birdseed)

Raw buckwheat groats

Flour, any kind (sparingly, ¼-½ c.)

Powdered milk

Cinnamon (Tablespoon or so)

~1 c. sweetener (sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc) If using sugar, add 1/4 c. of water

~½ c. oil (I usually use coconut oil)

Nut butter, optional (a spoonful to 1/2 c.)

Vanilla (a splash)

Combine and heat the ingredients in a saucepan until warm. Pour it into the dry mixture and spread out onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Take it out and stir, then bake for another 15 minutes. That’s about it.

It’s a difficult recipe to ruin. Your best chance of making an inedible granola will happen if you forget about it and burn it, otherwise, it’s nearly foolproof.

For chunkier granola, there are two important things you should do.

1. Most importantly, let the baked granola completely cool in the sheet pan without disturbing it before you try breaking it into chunks. Bake granola on a parchment paper lined baking pan so you don’t have to chip it out, which breaks up the chunks.

2. Tweak your recipe if you need to. If it still crumbles into smaller crumbles than you’d like, add more sweetener to your next batch.

Another thing I’ve recently discovered for crunchier granola: add ½ c. or so of sourdough starter to the granola. I don’t add it to ferment the mixture (which you certainly can do) but the added liquid gives the baked granola a chunkier texture without added sweetness. Actually, it gives granola a tartness that you might enjoy.

Only after it’s cooked and cooled should you add any dried fruit you’d like. Otherwise, it gets tough and chewy.

I’m the co-author of A Housewife Writes and author of Two Years as an Amish Schoolteacher, available on Amazon. (affiliate link) I love history and learning about the lives of our grandmothers who loved their families and managed their households. I share their stories and wisdom that are still meaningful as well as ways of keeping a modern home in the spirit of past times.