My “granola journey” was a bit unexpected. Store-bought granola has always been too crunchy, sending my TMJ into overdrive. Then I was introduced to homemade granola, and the ability to control the crunch level. When I decided to try my hand at making some, I found a basic recipe from Cookie and Kate. I liked the ability to customize ingredients, and it was super easy to make. In the years since, I have tweaked it to better match our granola desires, and that recipe – or formula – is what I’m sharing with you today.

Ingredients:
The gorgeous part of this recipe is you can interchange so many elements of it to match your tastes and/or the ingredients you have on hand. The only thing you have to have is the oats.

4 Cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 Cup chopped (raw) nut of choice (I used pecans)
1 Cup seeds of choice OR more nuts OR a mix of seeds and nuts (I did 1/2 pumpkin and 1/2 sunflower)
1 Cup chopped dried fruit of choice (I used dates and a sprinkle of dried cherries)
generous 1/2 Cup of olive oil
generous 1/2 Cup of honey OR maple syrup
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of fine-grain sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
1-2 tsp of vanilla (we don’t really measure)

Process
1: Mix all dry ingredients together. I feel like this helps the cinnamon and salt disperse more evenly. And you really do want the salt, it brings all the other flavors to life.
2: Add wet ingredients. Mix until everything is well coated.

3: Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, and spread granola evenly.
4: Bake 20 minutes. Remove pan and “stir” granola, before spreading out to finish baking. You can also press it down slightly, as pictured, for a chunkier crunchy granola.

5: Bake another 15+/- minutes, depending on preferred crunch level.
6: Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan on a rack. For the chunkiest granola, do not disturb for at least 45 minutes.

Note: If desired, you can add chocolate chips to your granola at Step 6: the hot granola will melt the chocolate, and you can either quickly stir it in before continuing the cooling-and-setting OR leave the chips as they are and mix them in later.

Once completely cool, break up granola into desired “chunk size” for storage and keep in an airtight container. This recipe makes enough granola to last us about a week.

We have fallen in love with fruit + yogurt bowls topped with granola this Summer. It’s something light and easy but packed full of good things. Using Greek yogurt also provides more protein.

Have you ever made granola?
What are your favorite flavors/ingredients in granola?
Have you ever eaten granola with milk as cereal? I saw this mentioned on a YT video and was very intrigued, but haven’t braved up enough to try it yet.