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.

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

HERBS, SPICES, and FLAVOURINGS 

Amount: 1-2 tsp dried spice and ⅛ – 1 tsp 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
Black Sesame Granola
Toasted Coconut and Maple Quinoa Granola

Plus this amazing resource: Avoid these common mistakes when making granola

How to Make Granola with Whatever is in Your Pantry

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews

• Author: Kris Osborne
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 55 minutes
• Yield: 12-16 servings

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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.

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Ingredients

4 parts Dry Ingredients to 1 part Wet Ingredients
Dry: (3 parts grains + 1 part nuts/seeds + Wet: (1/2 part fat + 1/2 – 3/4 part sweetener)

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, including grains, nuts/seeds/coconut, spices, and salt.
3. 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 tbsp of fat mixture with it.
4. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and stir together until coated.
5. 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.

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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.