Healthy Granola Recipe: Making It Your Own (2024)

We have several granola recipes here that I love. This one should be considered a basic granola recipe upon which all others are developed.

I love this recipe. It’s easy, delicious, and works every time.

And while it bakes in your kitchen, the entire house will smell cozy and absolutely wonderful.

It will be hard to wait, I promise.

Plus, it makes enough granola to last days and days—easy breakfasts with a bit of milk or wonderful snacks for that 3 p.m. slump.

Are you ready to make some granola?

Here are the basic ingredients you can adapt and make this granola your own special blend. I’ll show you what I added to mine in the recipe card below!

Healthy Granola Ingredients

Oats

Old Fashioned Oats are heart-healthy, whole-grain, and super hearty.

Nuts and/or Seeds

While I don’t always use either nuts or seeds, when I do, I love pecans and walnut. But honestly, any nut and/or seed is delicious. Think about adding almonds, cashews, peanuts, even macadamia nuts. All kinds of seeds work great like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, or pepitas. Get creative!

If you love nuts, you might want to see our post on 5 Healthy Nuts You’ll Want to Eat Daily.

Cooking Oil

Granola depends on oil to keep it crisp and delicious. Unrefined oil, like coconut oil, is delicious and healthy. But extra-virgin olive oil works equally well. The flavor leans toward savory with olive oil.

In a pinch, canola or vegetable oil works fine too.

Natural Sweetener

My favorite granola sweetener is pure maple syrup. It’s just the flavor I always love in granola. But honey is a superb choice too. Natural sweeteners give the granola a depth of flavor that sugar does not.

Salt and Spice

Salt is super important as it brings out the natural flavors of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit, so don’t skip it! Add enough to enhance the flavor. Sea salt is best but table salt works fine too.

For me, cinnamon is always a warming spice I love to add.

Dried Fruit

Dried fruit gives granola its extra special flavor and texture. Cranberries, raisins, tart cherries, dates, and dried apricots are great choices. Make it your own signature granola!

Do You Like Chunky Granola?

I love chunky granola, do you?

Here are some quick tips to make this granola clumpy.

• I bake the granola in a 9-inch x 13-inch baking pan to crowd the oats a bit so they can stick together. But a half-sheet or quarter-sheet baking pan works fine too.
• Line the pan with parchment paper so the maple syrup sticks to the oats and not the pan.
• Halfway during baking, after stirring the granola, gently press down with the back of a spatula. Return the granola to the oven to finish baking.
• Bake only until the granola is lightly golden on top. It will continue to crisp as it cools.
• Here’s the hard part… let the granola cool completely before breaking it up.