If you are looking for a simple granola recipe that makes great crunchy cereal and fantastic homemade granola bars, this is it!
Not too long ago, I shared our favorite Homemade Granola Bar recipe, but I mentioned the fact that I had yet to find a granola recipe I actually liked. Well, a reader sent me her recipe (thank you!), and this past week I tried it (with a few tweaks) and LOVED it! It was definitely crunchy, and perfect for cereal and granola bars.
The recipe nearly filled a gallon plastic bag, as you can see below:
You can definitely freeze or refrigerate this recipe to use later, but it keeps really well out on the counter for a long time too!
I added a little extra cinnamon because we love cinnamon! We also added cranberries, shredded coconut, and pecans to ours because that was what I had on hand, but the possibilities are endless with this simple granola! Experiment until you find one that your kids love.
Simple Granola
Ingredients
- 12 cups rolled oats (can use quick oats)
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1-2 cups dry, nutty stuff (almonds, banana chips, shredded coconut, sunflower seeds, walnuts, etc.)
- 1 cup oil
- 1 cup honey
- 2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°.
- Mix together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, heat oil and honey until well combined. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
- Pour the liquids over the dry ingredients and stir well to incorporate thoroughly.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper and pour granola onto sheets, keeping the granola shallow and easy to turn with a spatula.
- Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes until golden. Cool completely before storing in an air-tight container.
Sheila says
How would you then turn these into granola bars? (I’ve never made homemade granola..)
Amy says
Hi Sheila! The link is in the post 🙂
Diana says
I am going to try this! Thank you!!
Jennifer says
Do you want to make it even easier? Skip the big bowl and the messy-to-stir, shallow baking sheets, and just mix the whole thing in your biggest roasting pan with higher sides (like for a turkey). You might have to bake it longer and stir more often because the granola is in a thicker layer, but it is still easier. I do mine for one hour, stirring at 15 minute intervals for the first 30 minutes, and every 10 minutes thereafter. My recipe is similar, but it starts with one whole Aldi container of oats, so no measuring there. We add up to a Tablespoon of salt with the dry ingredients (really!). Same oil, but we skip the step (and pot!) of heating it with the honey. When we need to cut costs, we substitute a sugar-water slurry for the honey (1/2 cup water in a glass measuring cup, add 3/4 cu brown sugar, stir vigorously, and dump in with the oil). We wait to add our nuts, seeds, coconut, etc. until after the second stirring; and we add any dried fruit only at the end, while cooling.