This homemade recipe for granola is super yummy and so flexible! Below is our favorite cereal version, but there are many ways to tweak the recipe depending on your preferences.
Want to Save this Recipe?
Enter your email below & we'll send it straight to your inbox. Plus you'll get great new recipes from us every week!
Homemade Granola Bar and Cereal Recipe
For the nuts you can put either all almonds or all cashews (or split them as listed below or even try a totally different type of nut). Also, the same thing works for the seeds – you can either put in all pumpkin seeds or all sesame seeds or put in half and half. You could easily play around with the amounts of sesame seeds and flaxseeds as well. If you can’t find unsweetened shredded coconut you can leave it out completely.
If you want granola cereal make it with rolled oats. If you want granola bars then substitute steel cut oats for the rolled oats, and I also like to add dried fruit bits before baking the bars.
How to Make Cereal Homemade (Or, Granola Bars)!
For the cereal, once it has baked and cooled completely, you want to put it in a gallon zip lock to break it up into small cereal pieces. If you are making granola bars just break off big chunks instead of using a bag. Don’t expect perfectly uniform rectangles for your granola bars, these are homemade after all!
The oats, nuts and spices are seriously what make these bars come together! That being said, you can add any number of ingredients to make this cereal homemade with some fun, seasonal flavors. Simple modifications in the ingredient ratios can make for a festive mix, too. For instance, amp up the cinnamon and nutmeg for a perfectly fragrant winter-themed granola.
Looking for a protein granola that can help you last through those late-afternoon cravings? Fill your homemade granola mixture with some flax seeds, chia seeds or even powdered peanut butter to make those macros skyrocket! Dried fruits like raisins (or craisins, a personal favorite) can also make for a granola bar or homemade cereal that is perfectly crafted to fit your palate. Besides, the best way to add more nutrients to your family's diet is by making recipes you'll actually want to come back to!
How Long Does Homemade Granola Last?
This homemade granola recipe will stay crunchy and flavorful for about a month when stored in an airtight container out of direct sunlight. After that, you should probably start to plan your next batch! Side note: finished granola bars might fare well in the freezer if sealed properly although you should expect to lose some of that desired 'crunch' in doing so.
Granola Recipe (Cereal or Bars)
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups oats (rolled, (if you want bars use steel cut oats so it will stick together better))
- 1 cup almonds (raw, sliced)
- 1 cup cashews (or walnuts or pecans)
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- ½ cup sunflower seeds (raw)
- ½ cup pumpkin seeds (raw)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon (ground)
- 1 ½ teaspoons ginger (ground)
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg (ground)
- 6 tablespoons butter (unsalted)
- ½ cup honey
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Cover a rectangular baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Mix the dry oats, almonds, cashews, coconut, seeds and spices together in a large mixing bowl.
- Heat the butter and honey together in a small saucepan over low heat. Once the butter melts stir in the vanilla and salt.
- Pour the hot liquids over the dry ingredients and stir together with a rubber spatula until evenly coated.
- Spread mixture onto prepared pan in one even layer. Bake for 75 minutes.
- The granola will become crisp as it cools at which point you can break into pieces (if making bars) or break it up into small chunks by pounding it in a zip lock bag (if making cereal). Store in air tight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
Nutrition Facts
More Homemade Breakfast Ideas:
- Fluffy Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes
- Blueberry, Fruit and Nut Whole Wheat Muffins
- Freezer Friendly Breakfast Burritos
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Patricia. Can you do the seeds? You can always go heavy on seeds and add a wider variety. Also, dried fruit is a go to for me as are raw cocao nibs. :) ~Amy
Patricia says
First off I love this website! We are not 100% real food (yet), but love the principle behind it. I have a serious nut allergy and would need to remove all nuts in this recipe, thereby reducing the filling power. Do you have any ideas for "beefing" it up once I take the nuts out?
Thanks!
Jody Hand says
Good morning! That's a whole lot of butter LOL Any way to cut the butter and add something else?? Natural applesauce maybe? Thank you!!!
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Jody. Some readers use coconut oil instead or mix the two. You are welcome to tinker with the recipe and let us know your results. :) ~Amy
Jody Hand says
I used honey and natural, unsweetened applesauce - no oil or butter. Turned out great. For those people having trouble getting the bars to hold - I put my batch in the freezer for a few hours and then cut half size bars vs. whole bars and they are staying together very well. Thank you!!! :)
Gargi says
I am about to make these. Just a quick question Jody, did you store them in the freezer after cutting the bars or stored them at room temperature? I have made homemade granola before but this time I want to make bars since its easier for kids.
Yvonne says
I was wondering about the steel cut oats? Do they get cooked or soaked when baking them? Inhearsmyou shuldnt eat them raw, they cause digestion issues since they don't Break down? Do they have any nutritional value that way?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Yvonne. The oats do cook in the oven while baking. Some people do soak oats and other grains. We have not practiced that as yet. ~Amy
Cheryl says
I made something similar to this the other day and only used the nuts. I used walnuts, almond halves, sunflower seeds and coconut. I added raisins after they cooked. I don't think you need the oats at all, but I am sure it's yummy with them!
Jennie says
The early comments mention unhulled sesame seeds and flaxseed meal, but the recipe here doesn't contain either. I'm interested in how the recipe has clearly changed since first posted. Thanks.
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Jennie. Lots of readers like to add various ingredients to the basic granola recipe. :) ~Amy
Andrea says
I made my granola bars with the steel cut oats as well and they too fell apart. Great flavor but impractical for kids to eat as a snack. Any suggestions how to fix??
Thanks!! Love the website and all the recipes :)
Andrea
Sally says
This may help them stick - peanut butter! I made this recipe for granola today with regular oats... while I was melting the butter (I used vegan butter) and honey, I saw an almost empty jar of peanut butter just sitting on the counter waiting to be added to the mix. I emptied the jar, about three tablespoons crunchy organic, into the mixture. I also added dark chocolate chips and dried currants. Well, when the granola was done cooking and cooled I broke it into bar chunks and then wrapped each piece in plastic for later snacking.
I think the sticky peanut butter really helped this recipe.... maybe it will work with steel cut oats too.
Teresa says
not sure if this was a problem for anyone else but even using steel cut oats, my granola bars fell apart. Any suggestions? TIA!
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Teresa. I've had more success with the steel cut oats when I've added a bit more honey or bits of chopped dates. It is little more messy, though. :) ~Amy
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
....and Lisa also says to make sure you let the bars cool all the way in order to harden completely. ~Amy
Trish says
I really enjoy your website and newsletters. Keep up the good work.
I'm excited to try this cereal. I have a special needs grandson (27 years old) who lives with my husband and me and we started on our whole food eating in February of this year. It's been hard to get My grandson off of a couple of processed things with cereal being one of them. (We do buy organic oats that look like the other round circles.). I was thrilled when I came across your recipe. I'll be making it soon.
Christa says
I have a little dilemma with this, and after reading all 17 pages of comments, I didn't see anyone else ask about it...
I'm oat-intolerant as well as gluten-free... Any ideas what I could use in place of the oats? I have a flaker attachment for my bosch machine, but when putting buckwheat through it, it turns so much more into a small fragile flake and lots of flour-like dust. The millet wasn't any better. I'm trying to figure out how to make this.. I found a store-made non-oat granola by Sam Mills--they have a chocolate almond flavor that is FANTASTIC, but at $4+/10-11oz box, it's expensive as heck, but it's buckwheat & millet based.
Anyone try this without oats? I did try a batch with my home-rolled buckwheat & millet, but I think I mistakenly read the temp as 350 instead of 250 and it was way too done as well as WAY too crumbly. I'm wondering if just cracking the buckwheat would work better, or cooking it and using a rolling pin to flatten it down some then dehydrating would be better.
Help??
Christa says
I think I answered my own question... I used the rest of my rolled grains, added 1 c of cracked buckwheat, 1c of whole amaranth and 1c of whole millet. To that, I added 1c of unsweetened coconut, some flax meal and chia seed, and mixed it all together. Used 4 1/2c of that mix, added about a cup of raisins and what I had left of the sunflower seeds plus some quinoa flakes I had in the pantry. Kept the cinnamon, etc the same (though next time, no nutmeg and about 1/4 the ginger). Upped the butter and honey and added some cocoa and maple syrup--about 1 1/2 times the total syrup mixture. Pressed it down well into the pan and did the same bake time and temp. WHen it was done, it was okay, but not as sweet as I am used to (need to work on that, obviously, but over time), so I mixed up some coconut oil melted with an equal amount of cocoa and half as much maple syrup (proportions from the Fresh-You blogspot dark chocolate raisinet recipe) and poured that over the mostly cool mixture. It seemed to be okay. I had a little in milk for a snack, and packed some to take to work tomorrow.
January says
Can you use gf oats? I just made these tonight using bobs red mill certified gluten free rolled oats.
heather says
can these be frozen?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Heather. Yes, this freezes really well. :) ~Amy
Lindsay says
Hmmm, spices too. To speed things along I bake at 350 for about 20 min, stirring often so doesn't brown too much. I save time by buying toasted or roasted nuts and seeds in bulk and add to granola after it cools. Then I add dried fruit like currants and cranberries.
So basically I'm just toasting oats, wheatgerm and flaxseedmeal with the binding sauce.
Erin B says
OH MY GOODNESS!! These were so delicious. I changed up the recipe just a bit.
I added chopped pecans and walnut topping (from the bakery aisle) and only used a few pinches of coconut. I also used raw agave instead of honey and added 3/4 a cup of dark chocolate chips.
I sent the homemade granola bars to my husband in afghanistan and he LOVED them. Thank you so much for this great recipe.
Andrea says
I made this last night (so the oven wouldn't heat up the house during the day!) and it is delicious! I made the following substitutions: coconut oil for butter and 1/2 honey 1/2 maple syrup per another commenters suggestion. It is so good! I served it to my husband this morning with some yogurt and a bit of your honey strawberry jam and he loved it! I'm excited to have some for a snack later!
I like the idea of increasing the amount of oats which I think I will try next time! Thanks for another amazing recipe!
Karen says
Anybody know the calories/fat etc for this recipe?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Karen. We do not provide nutrition information for our recipes. These posts explain why:https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/01/04/healthy-eating-defined/, https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/10-reasons-to-cut-out-processed-food/, and
https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/01/23/portion-size-matters/. However, a reader recently suggested the following: “since people keep asking… assuming 1/4 cup servings: 245 calories, 15 grams of fat, 22 carbs, 3.5 grams fiber, 6.5 grams protein …give or takeâ€. ~Amy
Holly says
Just wondering if anyone has added flaxseed? if so how much?
Karen says
I couldn't find sunflower or pumpkin seed where I live. I substituted flax(grounded)and wheat germ and used the same amount. It was yummy!
Sarah says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I love it! Such a great snack on busy days! I love the versatility!
Jessica (Guam) says
THANK YOU , THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I just made this and it is incredible!! No more boxed granola for us!! As soon as it came out of the oven, my 12year old and I started munching on it and it is delicious!! Didn't have all the nuts/seeds in recipe but I used what I had and it still turned out fine!! I cut back on the ginger and used flax seeds instead of sunflower seeds. I think the great thing with this is you can tweak it around to each families specific tastes!! Again, thank you so much for providing such an awesome recipe!!!
Angie Attaguile says
Hope this isn't too silly of a question but can this be frozen?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Angie. Yes, granola freezes well. ~Amy
Lyndsey says
This is so tasty and so easy! I added sesame seeds and some dried fruit. Everyone in my house cannot get enough and they all think it must be so difficult to make.
Ashley says
So I know you have gotten a ton of great feedback from this post...I just have to say THANK YOU! I'm really pushing to remove unhealthy foods from my home. I'm struggling because I'm caring for my step kids who get a ton of processed food elsewhere, so they resist anything somewhat healthy. I stopped buying boxed cereal a few weeks ago and since we were running low I made this last night. I was SO surprised to wake up and find out that my five year old ate this. He ate his entire bowl. And he liked it. My ten year old also commented on how filling it was. Fantastic. Thank you thank you thank you!
Henrike van den Hurck says
Just made this and omg I love it! I am starting to make the transition to only real food and your blog is a great help, thank you so much!
Laura says
I've always been a huge fan of this recipe. I've made it at least 5 times. My favorite small change is to use 1/2 honey and 1/2 maple syrup. There's something about the maple syrup flavor that really elevates this, in my opinion. Now I'm a nursing mom who has had to cut dairy from my diet because of my baby having reflux. I experimented with non refined organic coconut oil and it was delicious! Just wanted to share in case anyone else needs to make it dairy free. Thanks Lisa!
Sue C says
WOW! 5 stars before I even try this because it not only sounds delish, it's full of RAW nuts and seeds that you have not oxidized by cranking the oven up too hot. 250 degrees should keep the healthy nut fats just that- healthy, NOT like commercially roasted nuts aka bad fat. Not many people realize this. Thanks for your blog!
Kelly says
I would love to try this recipe, but we have a child with a dairy allergy. Any suggestion on a substitution for the butter called for. I have struggled to find a dairy free granola bar recipe that the kids like...any help appreciated!
Sunnie says
I made mine with coconut oil. Granola is so versatile you can just experiment with different things and amounts until you find what you like.
Staci says
I have a daughter that is allergic to dairy as well. I plan on making this recipe and just substituting the dairy free butter we buy for her. This is what I do when I'm cooking something for the whole family and I can never taste the difference. You can find dairy free butter at any health food store.
lindley says
I used coconut oil and it worked well!
Stephanie says
First, thank you, Lisa for this recipe, I have been making granola for months now and love it! I am gradually trying to eat cleaner, but since my husband and I are both still in school it's difficult on our budget. This recipe is a staple though. A few days ago someone asked a question here about doubling the oatmeal and nothing else. I thought I'd try it since nuts are the most expensive part of granola. I have a pampered chef large bar pan, which is like 15" x 11" or something. It's big enough to do a batch and a half every time. So this time I used 1.5x the oatmeal, honey and almost as much butter and left the other ingredients the same. I really don't notice a difference and after looking at it, I realized it looks more like granola you would by in the bulk bin. Now you know their secret haha! This morning for breakfast I paired it with the "berry sauce" recipe and homemade yogurt. This was my first time making the sauce and yogurt and it was AWESOME!
I looked for a yogurt recipe here since you homemake so many things but there isn't one. It's really not hard to make and is much better than store-bought yogurt. You can do it without a machine, but the machines are all over second hand stores for $5... That's where mine came from!
Thanks again!
The fat loss factor says
Keep away from employing sit-ups as your only stomach muscle exercising.
Nanci says
I LOVE this granola. The only problem is that it's kind of expensive to make and we go through a batch really quickly. Do you think I could double oats while leaving the other dry ingredients the same? How much more honey/butter do you think would be necessary?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Nanci. That is a lot of oats. :) We have not tried that but I think it might work. The oats are what absorb the most moisture so I would consider doubling the honey and butter but you might have to play around to get the consistency right. Please let us know how it goes. ~Amy
Colette says
Hello - thanks for your great recipes and tips! I am looking for a granola bar recipe. One that we can make ahead and put the bars in the kids lunch boxes.
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Emily. We typically use coconut oil when substituting for butter. Here is some information on cooking with coconut oil:https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/02/07/how-to-cook-with-coconut-oil/. ~Amy
emily says
i'm wondering if it would be possible to make the granola with a butter substitute (my daughter cannot have dairy or soy.) we use earth's balance spread (from the tub, not the sticks). are you aware of anyone successfully substituting this or a different non-dairy, non-soy substitute?
Elisa says
I made this last night, and while it tastes good, it didn't hold together at all- completely loose like cereal with a couple of chunks on the bottom- the only change I made to the recipe was leaving out the nuts (I'm allergic). What did I do wrong?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Elisa. This recipe does tend to come out with less chunks. Did yours look like the photo above? ~Amy
Liz says
I also want to add chocolate chips to the granola bars. When should I add the chocolate chips?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Liz. Add the chocolate after the granola has cooked but while it is still warm. ~Amy
Nicole says
I'm making granola bars - Can you add chocolate chips?? If so when do you add them?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Nicole. I add chocolate after baking but while the granola is still warm. ~Amy
Sheryl says
since people keep asking... assuming 1/4 cup servings: 245 calories, 15 grams of fat, 22 carbs, 3.5 grams fiber, 6.5 grams protein ...give or take :)
Francine says
Has anyone ever figured out the nutritional information for this?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Francine. We do not provide nutrition information on our recipes. These posts explain why:https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/01/04/healthy-eating-defined/, https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/10-reasons-to-cut-out-processed-food/, and
https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/01/23/portion-size-matters/. That said, a reader recently suggested the following: "since people keep asking… assuming 1/4 cup servings: 245 calories, 15 grams of fat, 22 carbs, 3.5 grams fiber, 6.5 grams protein …give or take". ~Amy
darlin artiles says
My son and I really like this recipe a lot. We used to eat special k vanilla almond. And now all we eat is this. It's an awesome substitute. I skip the seeds--mainly cause I'm too lazy to look for any without additives. Thanks so much for sharing!
Emily says
This may seem like a silly question, but for the granola bars the the steel cut oats are cooked first, right?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Emily. No, they cook in the oven similar to the rolled oats. ~Amy
Christy says
I've looked through some(not all 14 pages) of the other comments and couldn't find anything on soaking the nuts.
I've been making this recipe for a number of months an love it, but recently learning more about how important it is to soak raw nuts in filtered water and sea salt and dehydrating them before consuming them and how much easier they are for your body to digest and pull nutrients from.
If I soak the nuts and dehydrate them before mixing everything together and then just baking for less time(cashews are suppose to be dehydrated at a different temp then other nuts), would that work?
Has anyone tried soaking them first and tips?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy) says
Hi Christy. We've not tried soaking. I'll be interested also to see any reader's experiences/comments. Soaking has been coming up a lot lately. ~Amy
Christy Long says
Well I soaked the nuts each there appropriate time and dehydrated them, and when I made the granola, I did everything like normal but baked it at the 275 for only 30 mins. Seemed to turn out fine, maybe it could have used another 10 mins to make the oatmeal just a little crunchier.
Just thought I'd update.
I highly recommend people soak the raw nuts first especially when feeding them to young kiddos.
Shannon says
Has anyone ever added peanut better to this? My kids love peanut butter granola bars, but I'm not sure how to alter the recipe to make peanut butter work in it. Thanks!
Naomi says
I always add a couple of heaping spoons of peanut butter to mine, I like the little bit of peanut butter flavor. So yummy for breakfast or as a snack in between meals.