Extra Chunky Granola
Chunky granola with lots of nuts! I originally made this recipe with a little egg white, but these days I use 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of ground flax which acts as a binder.
Servings 8
Cost 5
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter (21 grams)
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil or coconut oil (13 grams)
- ¼ cup brown sugar (50 grams)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup (20 grams)
- 1 tablespoon honey (20 grams)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt (plus a little more for sprinkling on top)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon egg white approximately (15 grams) OR use 1 T. water and 1 T. ground flax
- 2 cups oats, old fashioned type (160 grams)
- ¼ cup pepitas or sunflower seeds optional
- ¼ cup coconut flakes optional
- ¾ cup mixed nuts**
- ½ cup dried fruit of your choice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 275 F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with nonstick foil or parchment paper.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and stir in oil, sugar, maple syrup, honey and salt. Cook for about a minute over low, stirring to dissolve brown sugar. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and set aside.
- Put the egg white in a large mixing bowl or if using water and flax, put those two things in.
- Put oats into the bowl with the egg white (or flax mixture), then stir with a mixing spoon to blend the white in with the oats. They'll still seem pretty dry at this point.
- Add the seeds and nuts to the mixture, then pour the liquid mixture into the bowl and stir until blended.
- Spread the mixture over the bottom of the lined baking sheet to make thin slab. It should be all squished together, as if you were making bars.
- Bake at 275F for 40 minutes. After about 20 minutes in, carefully scrape up edges with a spatula and flip the granola on the edge towards the center. With the back of a spatula gently mash it back into a slab and continue cooking. Alternatively, skip the step of flipping the granola with a spatula. Instead, check at 20 minutes and just cover the slab with foil. Not flipping the granola will give you larger chunks in the end.
- Remove from the oven after the full 40 minutes. It should be warm, slightly browned and still chewy, but will crisp as it cools. Let cool completely. Break into chunks and stir in the fruit.
Notes
If you double this and bake it on two different oven racks, you might have to adjust the timing. One recommendation should you decide to double, is to make it all at once, then bake one sheet at a time. That will also give you a chance to gauge the correct time since ovens are always different.
I used to bake this at 300, but now I use 275 and bake for a little longer. The granola browns slower and doesn't require as much stirring which means you get more chunks in the end.
To press the granola into a slab, you can dampen your hands with a little water. This keeps the granola from sticking to your hands and it also adds a tiny bit of moisture to the granola which helps it stay in chunks. You don't want to add too much water, though.
I used to bake this at 300, but now I use 275 and bake for a little longer. The granola browns slower and doesn't require as much stirring which means you get more chunks in the end.
To press the granola into a slab, you can dampen your hands with a little water. This keeps the granola from sticking to your hands and it also adds a tiny bit of moisture to the granola which helps it stay in chunks. You don't want to add too much water, though.
