If you love homemade granola, making homemade granola clusters is must! With 10 minutes of prep, you'll have perfect granola clusters for snacking, topping yogurt, or adding to smoothie bowls.
Can we all agree that the best part of any granola is the giant clusters? Just me? While you can find granola clusters in most stores these days, they're surprisingly simple to make at home—just a big batch of perfectly crunchy clusters made with basic pantry ingredients you probably already have on hand.
And the best part? They're one of those recipes that you can enjoy a million different ways, so you never get bored of it. Serve in a bowl with milk and berries, sprinkle over yogurt or smoothie bowl, mixed into homemade pancakes for extra texture (trust me, try it!), add into trail mix, or snack on them with cheese and fruit.
You'll Love These Homemade Granola Clusters
- Extra crunch in every bite
- Made with only 9 ingredients; unlike the store-bought
- Wholesome breakfast or snack
- Make the clusters has large or small as you like
- Simple recipe—wonderful for beginner or young bakers
9 Ingredients You Need
- Oats: Old-fashioned rolled oats are the star of these granola clusters. I don't recommend quick or instant oats—it's key to use whole. I recommend the same for my peanut butter granola, homemade vanilla granola and even these peanut butter banana breakfast cookies.
- Almond Flour: Almond flour is a common ingredient at most grocery stores. You need this to assist the granola in clumping. If you can't find it, you can make it at home easily or see the recipe notes for other options.
- Almonds: Adding sliced or slivered almonds adds wonderful texture.
- Coconut Oil: A very important ingredient! The fat keeps the granola from turning into mush and adds crunch to every piece.
- Brown Sugar: The brown sugar adds sweetness and an important ingredient in making the "sauce" that gets poured over the dry ingredients. I recommend using dark brown sugar for the added molasses flavor.
- Maple Syrup: Pure maple syrup adds flavor and an additional sweetener. It also helps keep the granola clusters together.
- Vanilla Extract: Adds so much flavor!
- Cinnamon: Adds additional flavor.
- Salt: Helps bring out the flavor and balance the sweetness.
How To Make Granola Clusters
Melt the coconut oil and whisk in the brown sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla extract before pouring over and mixing into the dry ingredients. Press the mixture tightly onto a lined 9x13-inch baking sheet—that's the trick!
Bake for 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through to ensure it makes evenly. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool completely. This is extremely important! Using your hands, break apart into desired size clusters. If they clusters are still slightly warm to the touch, allow to finish cooling, as it will continue to crisp.
FAQs
The trick is to make sure the oat mixture is evenly coated and baked tightly packed onto the baking sheet in one big piece. That way you get the clusters after it cools.
A few tricks to make the best granola: you need to use a fat that solidifies at room temperature like coconut oil or butter, you need to pack it firmly onto the baking sheet, and allow it to cool completely to allow it to get crunchier.
You need a fat, like coconut oil or butter, with maple syrup.
While it's important to bake the granola for 40 minutes, it's even more important to make sure the granola cools completely. As it comes to room temperature, it will get crunchier.
Maple Almond Granola Clusters
Description
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 cup almond flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup almonds, sliced, slivered or chopped
- ⅔ cup coconut oil
- ¼ cup light or dark brown sugar, packed
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Line a 9x13-inch baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Mix the oats, almond flour, salt, and almonds together in a large bowls. Set aside.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the coconut oil—30 second increments at a time—until melted, stirring between each. (You can also do this in saucepan over medium heat). Whisk in the sugar, maple syrup and vanilla. Pour over the oat mixture. Stir until the mixture comes together and everything is coated evenly. The mixture will be sticky.
- Pour onto the prepared baking sheet, and using a spatula press the mixture tightly into an even layer. Bake for for 40 minutes until the granola is lightly golden brown on top, rotating the baking sheet halfway to ensure it bakes evenly. the baking sheet to ensure it bakes evenly.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely. The granola becomes crunchier the longer they cool. Once the granola has completely cooked, use your hands to break it up into desired size chunks. Cover and store the cooled clusters at room temperature for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.
- Cover and store the cooled clusters at room temperature for up to 2 weeks, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: You can freeze the completely cooled clusters for up to 3 months. Cover tightly. Thaw at room temperature.
- Oats: Whole rolled oats work best in this recipe. I don't recommend quick or instant. If you need this gluten-free, use certified GF.
- Almond Flour: You can use almond flour or almond meal. You can make almond meal at home. Pulse almonds into a food processor until the almonds are finely ground. Careful not to let it go too long as it will turn into almond butter. If you need this nut free, you can use oat flour or coconut flour.
- Coconut Oil: This is important as it keeps the granola from getting mushy. You could use butter instead, if needed, but you cannot substitute a liquid oil—you need a fat that turns to solid at room temperature.
- Add-Ins: You can add extra goodies like raisins, coconut flakes, raisins, crasins—just keep the total amount to 1 cup.
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