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Baked » Recipes » Tutorials and Tips

How to Make Granola with Whatever is in Your Pantry

Published: Apr 17, 2018 · Modified: Jun 2, 2022 by Kris Osborne · This post may contain affiliate links · 5 Comments

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Bookmark our quick guide on how to make granola, so that you can easily turn out a stellar batch with almost anything in your pantry.

Overhead shot of bowls of ingredients for making granola

Granola is the quintessential customizable breakfast food. A blank slate of grains (oats being your typical stand-in), combined with a fat and sweetener of your choice unleashes a world of flavour possibilities that can also be custom-made to suit diet (vegan, gluten-free, and even paleo if you skip the grains entirely and sub in nuts and seeds).

Granola variations abound! Opt for sweet or savoury, clumpy or flaky, seedy or nutty, fruity or fruitless, and the list truly goes on. Granola is so versatile that you can make this hearty breakfast/snack with the simplest of ingredients. Read on for how to create the perfect batch every time.

Below you’ll find a list of ingredient options that you can combine to suite your taste. By no means is this an extensive list. If anything, it’s a starting point. Feel free to include your favourites or anything that we’ve missed in the comments. Happy granola-making!

Know this ratio:

4 parts Dry Ingredients : 1 part Wet Ingredients

Example: Dry: (3 parts GRAINS + 1 part NUTS/SEEDS) + WET: (½ part FAT + ½ – ¾ part SWEETENER)

 

GRAINS:

Amount: 3 cups
Options include: Old-Fashioned rolled oats (not instant), rye flakes, barley flakes, wheat flakes, spelt flakes, kamut flakes, buckwheat flakes or groats, quinoa flakes or seeds, popped amaranth, millet, puffed rice, or use all nuts and seeds if opting for a grain-free granola.

 

NUTS and/or SEEDS: 

Amount: 1 – 1½ cups 
Options include:
Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews, pistachios, macadamias, peanuts
Seeds: Pumpkin, sunflower, flax, chia, sesame, hemp (keep the ratio of smaller seeds, like flax, chia, etc. to no more than ¼ cup)
Optional: An additional ½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes

Overhead shot of spices for making granolaHERBS, SPICES, and FLAVOURINGS 

Amount: 1-2 teaspoon dried spice and ⅛ – 1 teaspoon of flavouring extract, depending on the type. For example, you can use a full teaspoon of vanilla extract, whereas you’d want to start with ¼ – ½ teaspoon of almond extract to start.

Options include:

Herbs/Spices: Cinnamon, vanilla powder, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, cloves, rosemary, thyme, basil, fennel, chili flakes, smoked paprika, curry powder, espresso powder, etc.

Extracts: Vanilla, hazelnut, almond, coconut, maple, banana, coffee, rum, etc.

SALT (a must-have for balancing the flavour): 
Amount: ¾ – 1 tsp

SWEETENER: 

Amount: Approximately a ½ -¾  cup, depending on how sweet you like it. *Note: The amount of sweetener you use will decrease significantly if you’re making savoury granola. Start with 1 tablespoon of sweetener and adjust as needed.

Options include: Maple syrup, honey, agave, molasses, date syrup, brown rice syrup, coconut palm sugar, brown sugar, muscovado sugar, maple sugar. *Note: If using molasses, make the total amount no more than 2-4 tablespoons and make up the rest of the volume with another sweetener.

Unsweetened (ish): In place of traditional sweetener, you can sub in unsweetened fruit puree for a portion of the sweetener. E.g., Applesauce, pear puree, banana puree, and the like.

FAT: 

Amount: ¼ -½ cup
Options include: Olive oil, coconut oil, grape seed oil, butter, ghee, and nut/seed oils like hazelnut, macadamia, sunflower, almond, or walnut, etc.

DRIED or FREEZE-DRIED FRUIT, optional and added once the granola has finished baking: 

Amount: 1 cup (more or less, depending on how sweet you want it)
Options include: Cranberries, raisins, blueberries, cherries, raspberries, strawberries, currants, goji berries, mulberries, golden berries, candied ginger, pineapple, banana, pomegranate, figs, dates, mango, papaya, pear, apricots (some of these will need to be chopped before adding).

OPTIONAL ADD-INS

Cocoa powder: ¼ -½ cup, added in with the dry ingredients
Citrus zest, added in with the wet ingredients prior to mixing
Chocolate chips/chunks, amount is up to your discretion, added in to baked, cooled granola.

More Granola Recipe Inspiration:

Next Level Chocolate Hazelnut Granola
Nutty, Seedy Baked Granola
Tahini Granola
Maple Hemp Granola

Overhead shot of bowls of ingredients for making granola

Recipe

Overhead shot of bowls of ingredients for making granola

How to Make Granola with Whatever is in Your Pantry

4.6 from 5 votes
Author: Kris Osborne
Yield: 14
Prep Time 10 minutes mins
Cook Time 45 minutes mins
Total Time 55 minutes mins
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Description

 

Remember that the ingredients are listed in parts, so the cups are a guide. Feel free to halve the recipe if you are just looking to test something out.

Equipment

  • baking sheet
  • Parchment paper
  • Wooden spoon

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 300°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, including grains, nuts/seeds/coconut, spices, and salt.
  • Warm/melt the oil/butter, sweetener, and extract (if using) in a small saucepan over low heat. Mix together. NOTE: For clumpier granola, beat one egg white until foamy and replace 2 tablespoon of fat mixture with it.
  • Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and stir together until coated.
  • Evenly spread mixture over the parchment-lined pan and bake until golden brown, approximately 30-45 minutes, stirring every 15-20 minute for flakier granola. For clumpier granola, don't stir the granola while it's baking, simply rotate the pan halfway through.
Did you make this recipe?Let us know on Instagram @baked_theblog or tag #bakedtheblog!

This post was originally published on April 17, 2018. It has been updated with improvements to the recipe and instructions as of May 29, 2019.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mackenzie Smith says

    April 17, 2018 at 11:20 pm

    Love this! I have often tried to explain to people how I “throw things together” and I’m not sure anything I say really helps. This is exactly how I make granola! Will send askers your way next time!

    Reply
    • Kris Osborne says

      April 18, 2018 at 11:11 am

      This is so great to hear. I’m glad you find it helpful!!

      Reply
  2. Everlyne says

    July 12, 2019 at 5:45 pm

    I had white millet, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, oats, linseeds, chia seeds, honey, raisins, chocolate chips n no idea what to do. Thank you for your guidance!

    Reply
    • Kris Osborne says

      July 13, 2019 at 7:32 am

      Amazing news! That sounds like a delicious combo.

      Reply
  3. Oyumi says

    March 16, 2021 at 2:24 pm

    Thank you so much for creating this! I was looking everywhere to understand the proper ratios/proportions of type of ingredients.

    I did want to ask, say I want to make granola bars or nut & seed bars. What would be the ratio of dry to wet ingredients? If I used a seed butter and say coconut oil, would I still need to include a sweetener? I would hope the seed butter would be enough to help it stick, but I haven’t been able to find any site that does the breakdown of ratios/proportions for granola bars or nut/seed bars…

    Any guidance you can give would be greatly appreciated!!!!

    Reply

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