Homemade Gourmet Granola

This Homemade Gourmet Granola is one of those things everyone should make at least once. Homemade granola is so simple to make, there’s not much too it. Pick your favorite nut, mix and bake.

But you can read on to follow along step by step and learn all the tips and tricks to making the best gourmet granola. Or just grab your rolled oats, hit that Jump to Recipe button, and let’s make homemade granola!

Ingredients

Oats: When you’re making granola, you’ll use old-fashioned, or rolled, oats. Steel-cut oats are great for making oatmeal for breakfast or to bake in oatmeal muffins. Instant oats are pretty much only best for an early morning, high altitude summit when you can’t stomach anything else.

Nuts: Nearly any nut will work in this homemade granola recipe. I use pecans most often, but I’ll happily enjoy this granola with walnuts, hazelnuts, or peanuts, just to name a few.

Egg whites: Egg whites will make your gourmet granola clump. The number I add often depends on whether I’m separating eggs specifically or if Mr. Uglyducklingbakery has recently made ice cream. After that, leftover egg whites go towards making granola, practicing macarons, or sour cocktails like the vodka sour, Frangelico sour, or Aperol sour.

When it’s all done, add dehydrated strawberry chips, chopped dried apples, or another dried fruit to the mix. Think raisins, cranberries, chopped apricot, candied ginger, or chocolate chips. Chocolate chips are fruit, right?

Variations and substitutions

• Peanut butter granola: add one quarter cup of dried peanut butter powder to the mixture and omit the cinnamon and maple syrup.
• Pumpkin seed granola with pumpkin pie spices: Omit the coconut. Instead of the small amount of cinnamon in this recipe, combine the pumpkin pie spice mixture from my pumpkin pie-spiced chickpeas in a small bowl before adding it to the other ingredients. Use 1 cup of raw pumpkin seeds.
• Make a nut-free granola: In place of the nuts, add in raw pumpkin seeds or other seeds.

How do you get granola to cluster?

There are a couple things you can do to get your granola to cluster. It’s the egg whites in this recipe that are primarily responsible for making the granola clump. It’s also important to pack the granola well, and flip it gently later in the baking time after it has had time to set up.

Step by step

Step 1: Mix all of the ingredients for your gourmet granola together in a large bowl, making sure the egg whites are distributed throughout and all of the oats are moistened.

Step 2: Turn the granola out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or silicone liner, and pack the granola well onto the baking sheet. Leave a space around the edge to make flipping sections easier.

Step 4: About 45 minutes or so into cooking, gently flip the granola. This lets your clusters set before you disturb them.

Let your gourmet granola cool completely before storing it in an airtight container. You can add your dried fruit here or keep it separate for maximum flexibility.

What to serve with homemade granola

• Use it on top of your yogurt for a parfait or with a blackberry strawberry banana smoothie bowl.
• Bake fruit like apples or peaches and top it with granola.
• Just eat it plain as a snack!

Recipe FAQs

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