Hearty Steel Cut Oats Granola is a wholesome breakfast or snack option. The homemade granola is easy to make and completely customizable. Enjoy it with yogurt or milk and fresh fruit.
While store-bought granola is convenient, it is often expensive and contains artificial ingredients. Not only is homemade granola easy to make, but you can control exactly what you put into it. This steel-cut oat granola recipe utilizes wholesome ingredients and natural sweeteners.
Steel-cut oats combine with nuts, seeds, dried fruit, healthy oil, and sweeteners to form a nutritious blend. The oat mixture bakes until golden brown, creating crunchy granola perfect for breakfast or snacking.
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Steel Cut Oat Granola Recipe
The benefit of enjoying homemade granola over store-bought is the control of ingredients. Homemade granola is highly customizable and incredibly easy to make. With an easy production process and a two-week shelf life, it's hard to find a reason to buy store-bought granola over making it yourself home.
- Healthy Ingredients: This homemade recipe utilizes whole foods like steel-cut oats, nuts, and flax seed meal.
- Natural Sweeteners: Honey and pure maple syrup provide the whole granola mixture with a sweet flavor. The sticky syrups also help create delectable oat clusters.
- Homemade Granola Recipe: The beauty of making food from scratch is that you can control what goes into it. This is ideal for dietary restrictions and also helps you utilize what you have in your pantry.
Ingredients
- Steel-Cut Oats: Hearty oats provide the nutritional body of granola. Steel-cut oats have a crunchier texture, resulting in a delectably crunchy granola.
- Ground Cinnamon
- Salt: Like in any baked good, salt regulates and balances flavor.
- Nuts: Stir in chopped almonds, walnuts, or pecans. Use whatever you have on hand.
- Seeds: Stir in sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, or chia seeds.
- Flaxseed Meal (optional): Flax seeds are nutrient and fiber-dense.
- Pure Maple Syrup: Maple syrup sweetens the granola. Use pure syrup, not the artificial kind, which is essentially maple-flavored sugar syrup.
- Honey: This natural sweetener sweetens the granola and helps it stick together in desirable clusters.
- Melted Coconut Oil: Oil helps granola brown in the oven. You can swap it for avocado oil, too.
- Pure Vanilla Extract
- Dried Cranberries: Swap dried cranberries for any other dried fruit.
See the recipe card for the ingredient quantities.
Step-By-Step Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a Silpat.
2. Combine the dry ingredients (not the dried cranberries) in a large bowl.
3. Whisk the wet ingredients in a liquid measuring cup.
4. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir to coat.
5. Transfer the oat mixture to the prepared sheet pan. Using a rubber spatula or your hands, press the mixture down into a single layer.
6. Bake the granola for 20 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and fragrant. Remove the tray from the oven.
7. Let the granola cool for one hour before stirring in the dried cranberries and breaking it into pieces.
Variations
- Vegan: Swap the honey for brown rice or date syrup. You can also use pure maple syrup in place of the honey.
- Gluten-Free: Use certified gluten-free oats.
- Chocolate Chip: Sprinkle ½ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks over the still-warm granola. (Let the granola cool for 10-15 minutes before sprinkling with chocolate pieces.)
- Add-Ins: Mix in unsweetened coconut flakes or cacao nibs.
Serving Suggestions
While granola is always a hearty snack when eaten by a handful, it's equally delicious as a topping.
- Fresh Fruit: Enjoy granola with fresh berries or fruit slices.
- Yogurt Parfaits: Stack homemade granola with plain Greek yogurt and fresh fruit for a hearty, on-the-go breakfast or snack.
- Cold Cereal: Transfer a serving of granola to a jar or bowl and pour in a splash of milk—top servings with fresh fruit or a drizzle of honey.
Storage
Transfer cooled granola to an airtight container or sealed jar. Store in a cool, dry place at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Granola Recipes
- Chocolate Coconut Granola with Pecans
- Homemade Toasted Coconut Granola
- Peanut Butter Granola Clusters with Chocolate Chunks
- Maple Pecan Granola Clusters
Expert Tips
- When measuring sticky honey, spray the measuring cup with a small amount of oil. The oil keeps the honey from sticking.
- Bake granola in a low-temperature oven.
- Rotate the pan halfway through cooking for even baking.
- Let the granola sit for 1 hour before breaking it up and stirring in the dried cranberries. Waiting to break up the granola helps promote granola clusters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Steel-cut oats are made by cutting oats into small pieces using a steel blade
rather than rolling them flat like traditional rolled oats, which means less processing. Unlike old-fashioned oats, they are not steamed or rolled. For this reason, they take longer to digest, which is more beneficial for the body in the long run.
While steel-cut oats have their own use in baking compared to other oat forms, they can be used to make granola.
Homemade granola can be frozen. Transfer cooled granola to a freezer-safe container. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw the granola completely, at room temperature, before enjoying it.
Like many foods, granola is healthy in moderation. Made with heart-healthy oats, healthy fats, and other omega-friendly ingredients, granola offers substantial nutritional value per serving. Oats contain natural probiotics and can help regulate blood sugar. However, granola can pack on calories quickly because of some ingredients' higher fat and caloric content. Stick to the portion size when eating granola to obtain the most nutritional benefit.
If you make the recipe, remember to rate it, and let me know what you think in the comments below! Take pictures, tag #sugarylogic, and share them with me on Instagram or Facebook.
📖 Recipe
Steel Cut Oats Granola
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 cups steel-cut oats
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped nuts almonds, pecans, or walnuts
- ¼ cup seeds sunflower, pumpkin, flax, or hemp
- 3 tablespoon flax seed meal optional
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a Silpat.
- Combine the oats, ground cinnamon, salt, nuts, seeds, and flaxseed meal (if using) in a large bowl.
- In a small bowl or large liquid measuring cup, whisk the maple syrup, honey, melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract until incorporated.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir to coat.
- Transfer the oat mixture to the prepared sheet pan. Using a rubber spatula or your hands, press the mixture down into a single layer.
- Bake the granola for 20 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and fragrant. Remove the tray from the oven.
- Let the granola cool for one hour before stirring in the dried cranberries and breaking it into pieces.
Notes
- Serving: ½ cup (50g)
Nutrition
Did you make this? Leave a review below and tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
Bethany
This is so good!!! I will be making this a lot 😊
Katelyn Theofanis
Bethany, I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed this granola recipe. Thank you for the positive review!!