Homemade Granola With Honey: Big Clusters, Less Sugar, Endless Mix-Ins

Honey granola recipe

This makes about 6 cups. Use old-fashioned rolled oats; quick oats turn dusty and instant oats go soggy.

• 3 cups (270 g) old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup (120 g) chopped nuts, such as almonds, pecans or walnuts
• 1/2 cup (70 g) seeds, such as pumpkin, sunflower or sesame
• 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (170 g) honey
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) olive oil, coconut oil or melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup dried fruit, added after baking

Method and the secret to clusters

Heat the oven to 300°F and line a large sheet pan with parchment. Stir the oats, nuts, seeds, salt and cinnamon together. Warm the honey and oil until runny, add the vanilla, and pour over the oats, stirring until every flake is glossy.

For big clusters, spread the granola on the pan and press it down firmly with a spatula into an even layer. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway but not stirring, until deep golden. Then leave it completely alone until it is fully cool, at least 45 minutes. The honey sets as it cools and binds everything into sheets you can break into chunks. An egg white whisked into the honey mixture makes even bigger, crunchier clusters.

Why honey makes better granola

Honey browns at a lower temperature than sugar and is sticky enough to hold oats together, so honey granola clusters easily at a gentle oven temperature. It also adds flavor. The tradeoff is that honey burns faster, so keep the oven at 300°F and watch the edges in the last 10 minutes.

Mix-in ideas

Add nuts and seeds before baking. Add dried fruit, chocolate and anything delicate after the granola has cooled, so they do not burn or melt.

Which honey to use

Pure Raw or wildflower gives a balanced, classic flavor. Clover is milder if you want the nuts and spices to lead. Blueberry Blossom pairs beautifully with dried blueberries and almonds. For a darker, more robust granola, swap a few tablespoons of the honey for buckwheat.

Storage and serving

Store cooled granola in an airtight jar at room temperature for up to two weeks. Moisture is the enemy, so do not seal it while warm. Serve it over Greek yogurt with honey, with milk, on smoothie bowls or by the handful. A jar of homemade granola also makes a thoughtful gift.

How sweet is homemade granola?

Many boxed granolas are as sweet as cookies. This recipe uses 1/2 cup of honey for about 6 cups of granola, which works out to roughly 1 tablespoon of honey per 3/4-cup serving before dried fruit. You can cut the honey to 1/3 cup and still get clusters, especially if you add an egg white. Our how much honey per day guide puts those numbers in context.

Dried fruit adds a lot of natural sugar, so if you want a less sweet granola, use fresh fruit at serving time instead, or choose unsweetened dried fruit.

Granola bars from the same recipe

To turn this into bars, increase the honey to 2/3 cup, add 1/4 cup nut butter, and press the mixture firmly into a parchment-lined 9 by 13-inch pan. Bake at 325°F for 25 to 30 minutes until golden at the edges, cool completely in the pan, then lift out and cut. Chilling for 30 minutes before cutting gives clean edges.