This healthy homemade granola recipe is packed with oats, coconut, pecans and spices. Delicious crunchy granola clusters are the best for snacking or breakfast!

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Easy Granola Recipe
This healthy homemade granola recipe is one I enjoy every day. Made with simple pantry staples like oats, nuts, seeds, and natural sweeteners, it’s an easy recipe just like my oatmeal breakfast bars, homemade granola bars and no-bake breakfast cookies.
Granola is one of my favorite healthy snacks. It tastes amazing for breakfast in a yogurt bowl, smoothies, oatmeal or overnight oats and even plain. It’s perfectly crunchy with lots of clusters, just the right amount of sweet taste and way better than store-bought!
Why I Love This Healthy Granola
- Healthier. After purchasing many bags of store-bought granola, I found that making a homemade healthy granola recipe is much better as I can control the ingredients and added sugar.
- Stays fresh for a long. Granola will stay good up to a month. Top baked apples or baked peaches for a snack or add to breakfast popsicles!
Ingredients
Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements below.
- Basic granola recipe: Simple ingredients including old-fashioned whole rolled oats (not quick-cooking oats), canola oil (or melted coconut oil), honey (or maple syrup), vanilla extract and cinnamon.
- Brown sugar: This adds natural sweetness to my easy homemade granola recipe. Feel free to omit for a less sweet version.
- Coconut: Unsweetened coconut flakes are always delicious and give a light and tasty texture and flavor.
- Pecans: I love adding hearty nuts that can add in protein as well.
How to Make Homemade Granola
Mix ingredients together. In a large mixing bowl, stir all dry ingredients together until combined. Spread granola mixture in an even layer onto the parchment paper lined jelly roll pan or baking sheet.
Bake granola. Bake the granola at 300°F for 10 minutes, then remove it from the oven and stir. Place back in the oven and bake for 7-8 more minutes. Remove, stir and let cool.
Recipe Variations and Healthy Substitutions
- Chocolate: Make it little sweeter ingredient with white or chocolate chips. Even peanut butter chips are delicious! Add after removing from the oven.
- Dried fruit: Dried apricots, dried cranberries, golden raisins, or dried cherries are chewy and delicious. Add after baking to avoid burning in oven.
- Different nuts: Try almonds, peanuts, or walnuts for classic nuts. If you are more adventurous try it with sunflower seeds, pistachios, or pumpkin seeds.
- Small seeds: Chia seeds and flax seeds not only add crunch but are rich in omega-3’s, healthy fats and fiber.
- Low sugar: Omit or decrease the added brown sugar.
- Vegan: Use real maple syrup in equal amounts for the honey.
- Gluten free: Use certified gluten-free oats. They will still need to be rolled oats.
- Seasoning: Cinnamon or ground ginger, or pumpkin spice will add warm flavor.
Best Granola Recipe Tips
If you love crunchy clusters in your homemade granola, follow these tips!
- Press down evenly into the pan for the first 7 minutes of cooking. This encourages clusters to form. After stirring, press down again to make clumpy granola.
- Stir granola halfway through baking time. This helps distribute the middle to the edges so they get crisp without any soft spots.
- Cool completely before breaking into pieces. As it cools it will continue to get crisp.
- Add dried fruit after it has cooled. You want the dried fruit to stay soft and chewy.
- Combine cooled granola with fresh fruit or fresh berries and Greek yogurt to make a yogurt parfait (my favorite for a healthy breakfast!).
- To store, add granola to an airtight container, bag or mason jar for up to 1 month at room temperature or store frozen up to 2 months.
More healthy snack ideas include: Honey nut cheerios peanut butter bars, baked oatmeal, or kale smoothie.
Homemade Granola
Video
Ingredients
- 4-5 cups rolled old fashioned oats
- ⅔ cup melted coconut oil , or canola oil
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup light brown sugar , can sub honey or maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1/2-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ cup coconut , flakes or chips
- 1 cup chopped nuts (I prefer a mix of cashews, almonds or pecans)
Optional mix in's: pumpkin seeds and dried fruit
Instructions
- Prep. Preheat oven to 300°F. Line or grease a 15×18 jelly roll pan and set aside.
- Combine. Mix 4 cups old-fashioned oats, melted coconut oil, honey, brown sugar, vanilla extract, salt, cinnamon, coconut and nuts in a large bowl and stir until combined. Add 1/2 cup more oats if there's liquid in bottom. Spread granola mixture out evenly onto pan.
- Bake. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and stir and then press oats down with a spatula. Put back in the oven for 7-10 more minutes for a chewy granola. For a crunchier granola, stir and press down again. Then cook additional 5 minutes. The granola will harden more as it cools, so be careful not to burn. Remove from oven and let cool.
- Store. Store granola in an airtight container.
Last step: Please leave a comment and rating after you make the recipe.
Notes
- chocolate chips (wait to add until after baking)
- chopped dried fruit (I love to add the dried golden berries or wild blueberries from Trader Joe’s)
- extra nuts such as macadamia nuts
- chia seeds
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Colleen Thorn
Delicious! I just added a little more salt for that sweet and salty emphasis and used only 3/4 tsp of cinnamon as it can be overwhelming. I also added dried cranberries and raisins and used Kirklands whole almonds (the best).
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
So glad you could make it how you like it, thanks for sharing!
Susan Kuhn
Delicious. The perfect combination of ingredients. Exactly what I was looking for. I will be making this again! Thanks!
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
So glad you enjoyed the homemade granola!
Terry W Shea
Soooo good and easy! I substituted Molasses for the brown sugar. Yummy!
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
yum! So glad you enjoyed it!
Tina
Amazing, best easy , simple fast and delicious recipe out here.
Thank you for sharing ❤️
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
So glad you love the granola!
Amanda Walsh
I made this once before as written and it was really good. Have a tray of this in the oven right now to take camping with us, but made some adjustments. I subbed maple syrup for the brown sugar like you mentioned and I like the flavor a whole lot more. I also added a bit extra salt (by accident thanks to a faulty container) and my husband was really impressed.
We are at the end of our monthly groceries so we had to mix old fashioned oats with quick oats. I also added a cup of rice crispy cereal at my 10 year olds request.
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
Sounds like it will be the perfect camping snack or breakfast!
Té James
This stuff is addictive. Have made it 4 times since finding the recipe. My family loves it and told me that we never to need to buy store bought granola again.
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
Homemade granola for the win!
Sue Cairns
Olive oil may be a healthier oil to use. Can you provide a reason NOT to use olive oil?
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
Hi Sue, use whatever oil you like, although using olive oil may taste differently than a neutral oil like canola or vegetable oil. Coconut oil is great to help it crisp better and end up with nice granola clumps.
Sue Cairns
Thank you. I will use a medium olive oil and not a robust one!
Jean
Makes up a lot and has a lot of flavor
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
Thank you for the review of the homemade granola!
Lynn
Love this recipe. Easy to make and delicious to eat with my yogurt everyday.
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
So happy to hear this, one of my favorite ways to enjoy it too!
Pepper
Holy cow! This stuff is addictive! Thanks so much for the recipe. I have a feeling I’ll be making this on repeat.
Be well.
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
So glad you are enjoying the homemade granola!
Jana
We LOVE this granola! It’s a family favorite and I make it all the time!
Jamielyn Nye
Yay, I’m so glad your family loves the homemade granola!
Tanya
Totally scrumptious 😋!!
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
We agree, thanks for the review!
Katie
Delicious recipe and fun for kids to make with you! Thank you for such a great and easy recipe to make with and for my family 💜!
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
So glad you enjoy the homemade granola!
Deb
I made this today. I added extra nuts and coconut as those are favorites. My pan was a little smaller than a jelly roll pan so I baked it a little longer, mixing every 5-7 minutes. The tasting is great. Just waiting for it to cool enough to snack on.
Thanks for the recipe.
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
Yum on the extra add-ins! Thanks for the review of the homemade granola Deb!
Rachel
Better than store bought!
Jamielyn Nye
So glad you enjoyed the granola!
Jane
So delicious and easy to make! Great recipe! Thank you! I use it to add a bit of crunch to me Greek yogurt.
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
Yum! That is a favorite way for us to use the granola, too!
Esther
I made this with Swerve brown sugar (sweetener) as I’m diabetic and it turned out fantastic! Great recipe!
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
Thanks for letting us know Esther! Glad it worked well for you in the granola!
Katie
Hi! Can you freeze this at all?
Sarah @IHeartNaptime
It always gets ate before we have a chance to do that, but it should work.