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Granola clusters are a nutritious, energy packed snack that is great alone or on top of vanilla ice cream or your morning yogurt. While I enjoy it as a snack, trying to get my kids to eat it isn’t always an easy task which is unfortunate because it comes loaded with fiber.
Unfortunately, many of the better tasting pre-packaged varieties of granola are loaded down with sugar and other ingredients that I normally don’t want my kids to over eat. To avoid these additional sugars, I tend to buy the plainer varieties which don’t always appease a child’s palate. While several companies do offer more nutritious granola, I recently decided to save a couple of bucks and try my hand at making my own granola clusters – ones that me and my kids would enjoy.
Not only are my granola clusters cheaper, a small store bought bag can easily reach $5 to $6, but my kids enjoy them much more too. So if you want to create a fun, crunchy snack for yourself and your kids, give the recipe a try.
Happy baking!
Karlynn
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How to Make Your Own Granola Clusters
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 20 minutes
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Course
- Snack
- Cuisine
- American
- Servings
- 20
- Author
- Karlynn Johnston
Ingredients
- 3 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3 tablespoons of brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1/3 cup of honey
- ¼ cup of canola oil
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In one large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, kosher salt, and cinnamon.
- Once combined, add the fruit and nut combination which most appeals to you and your kids’ taste.
- In a second smaller bowl, combine the honey, canola oil, and vanilla. Once thoroughly mixed, pour the honey mixture over the oat mixture. Then using your hands, mix the ingredients forming clusters of your desired size.
- Plop the clusters over the lined cookie sheet and bake for 20 to 30 minutes until the clusters are light golden in color.
- Be sure to keep an eye on the clusters throughout their time in the oven as those that become a deeper golden will have a burnt flavor.
- Once light golden color is reached, allow the clusters to cool completely.
- Once cool, feel free to enjoy, but make sure to store all leftovers in an airtight container as they can go stale quickly if not properly stored.
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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Please rate this recipe in the comments below to help out your fellow cooks!
Suesue says
This is a yum recipe, the degrees is 300 F not C, my bad I didn’t click until it was 15 mintues cooked and quite brown … I will be making it again but cook at 150C not 200…
I used about 1/2 cup of honey cause comments were saying it needed more, I think I’ll stick to 1/3 cup next time.
Also another tip, I mixed it with a silicon spatular rather than my hands, worked perfectly.
and you do have to wait until it’s cold to have clusters, my first try was very churchy
Thanks again for sharing this recipe, so quick and easy and lot’s cheaper than store bought 🙂
Jackie says
how much fruit and nuts?
Cbj says
Great recipe . I did tweak it a bit and turned my oven to 250 bc my oven runs hot. I didn’t get it to cluster so I’m thinking I need more liquid but it was good none the less. Wayyyyy cheaper than buying $6 box of granola that’s way too sweet anyways. I often never buy this bc this family is on a budget and I’m the only one that eats granola cereal . Thank you .
Michelle Carter says
Really easy and good. Added some sliced almonds, pecans and walnuts. Perfect since I eat granola daily with blueberries and yogurt. This will become a staple in our house.
Claire says
How long does it last (or when does it expire) when you store in an air tight container? And would a ziplock bag work?
Carmen Werner says
Terrific granola recipe! I followed exactly & added 1/4 c. Of minced almonds & 2 Tb of sunflower seeds. Harder to cluster, but halfway thru baking smashed all down & when done broke up to nice pieces….Delish… thx bunches Katlynn 4 super good recipe I will pass on!!!!! cw
Evie says
This recipe is amazing!! I added 2 heaped tbsp peanut butter and it was divine so definitely add that. It also allows me to add loads of seeds that I don’t usually like the taste of without really tasting them. Also also didn’t add any sugar and made sure to add some salt to taste, which made for the perfect salty-sweet granola
Cara Cuda says
This recepie is my favorite granola recepie, I have tried MANY AND THIS ONE IS THE BEST!
Shunda Crockett says
I made this and that turned out great! Added sliced almond, cranberries and sunflower seeds.. Delicious
cj says
My boyfriend and I made it and it was delicious! Totally better than any store bought granola. Just sweet enough without feeling like i’m eating a crunchy sugar cube! 10/10 recommend, and will be making again 🙂
Mr. Kitchen Magpie says
Awesome thanks for trying it! Glad you enjoyed it.
Ben says
My girlfriend and I love this recipe! Not too sweet, not too crazy, simple, quick–a new breakfast go-to!
solange sharkie says
So, am I the only one here that noticed the lack of information on nuts to be added? Or is it supposed to be obvious as to how much to add? I get that it’s the fruit and nuts of choice but too many would change the ratio of other ingredients would it not?
Dex says
I was unable to form clusters because it was not sticky enough and it was falling apart easily. I just put everything on parching paper in an oven tray and baked it at 150°C (without fan), but I was taking it out every 10 minutes or so to give it a stir. It took about 40 minutes. Even without the clusters, this was down the best granola I have ever had. Sweetness was perfect, taste was amazing in general. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Zi Yi says
you can’t stir it, you will break the cluster
Lindsay Long says
Same with me! I’m making it right now and I was not able to form into clusters. I put it all on the baking sheet lined with parchment and pressed down evenly. I made one batch with brown sugar and the other sugar free with monk fruit sweetener. I’ll see how it goes!!
foodiefarz says
What could I substitute the canola oil for?
Cam says
I’ve been using avocado oil. Any neutral flavored oil with relatively high heat would work. Peanut oil maybe.
Skindvall says
I used coconut oil.
Barb says
Coconut oil
Cherie says
Was nothing like pictured. Read the comments and added a lot more honey but it still turned out nothing like pictured, though I did manage to get the oats to somewhat stick together.
Ximena says
This recipe is a whole nother level. I can’t begin to explain how amazing this recipe is. I will put it in 3 words: Easy and Scrumptious. It literally took me 15 minutes since it was my first time doing it and didn’t want to mess up but if I would do it a second time I would do it like in 5 minutes; it’s that easy. The taste, just wow it is so perfect. I wanted granola but because of the whole pandemic, I couldn’t find one that I would like since I like to take the sweetness of the granola and mix it up with just natural yogurt and the flavors compliment each other so freaking well. Decided to look a recipe up and this did it for me, by far the best. ** Little Disclaimer: the recipe calls for 1/3 cup of honey and I ended up using around 3/4 cup. I read the comments beforehand so I got my whole bottle of natural honey ready to be used but yeah just keep in mind you will use a whole lot of honey. Other than that, I would marry this granola in a blink of an eye.
Valeria D'Annibale says
Made this and came out perfect! I tried many times before but they never came out like clusters, this recipe does! I didn’t even form the clusters with my hands, I just spread the mix on the tray and baked it as a whole, then broke with my hands afterwards. Deeeeelicious!
tannachtonfarm says
Excellent! and exactly what i was looking for. I linked to this page through my blog. My family loves this mix to the point they no long want to buy the commercial cereal.
Thank you!
tauna
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Meagan says
What would be the portion size? Like 1/4cup? 1/8?
ArianaGrande says
Love it!
Donna says
Will sliced almonds get too done if added?
Cam says
If the slivered almonds are pre-roasted they’ll taste burnt. But its really easy to add mixins afterwards and have it mixed in storage, or mix just what you like when you serve it out, some days almonds some days walnuts! Yum!
abri12 says
is this recipe good possibly for making it to cereal ? Because i have milk sitting in the fridge waiting to be used for something valuable
Tyler says
I couldn’t get it to cluster…. Taste was good, but it’s just loose oats now…. How can they stay together sand find out like the picture? More brown sugar or honey to make them stick? Please help.
Mary Claire says
What you need is more honey. You probably have figured that out by reading the comments, but if not, yeah, you may need to add more honey. Hahaha this was written 7 months ago, but I hope it still heps.
abri12 says
is this recipe good possibly for making cereal? because i have milk in the fridge waiting to get a bite at the granola
Geena says
Tried this… absolutely delicious however I was not able to get the clusters stuck together. Once I added a tad more honey, it helped but nowhere near how it is in the picture or the pre-packaged stuff. Any tips on how to make the clusters?
Tiffany says
@Geena so what I did was had a little bowl of water next to me and when i picked up a cluster i dipped it quickly in water (dont soak it just a quick dip) which helped it hold together. then i put it in oven and once cooked took it out, let it cool and once it cooled it was stuck together!
Lynne says
just made this – came out great. Delicious! I’ll have to make more tomorrow. 🙂
Deb says
I would rather not add brown sugar. Any healthy substitute?
Kendra McKibbin says
Love this! This is my go to granola recipe. Thank you for sharing!
-Kendra
A Canadian Foodie says
Everything homemade is SOOOOOOO much better. Bet the kiddies love to help with this!
XO
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