Maple Pecan Granola Clusters

Today, I’d like to share one of Lil’ L’s all-time favourite breakfasts.

I started making home-made granola about five years ago in response to Lil’ L’s dislike for the dried fruits that appear in shop-bought granolas.  After a week of picking out the raisins from a granola before serving it to him, I decided that life was far too short to waste time picking out dried fruit and that I would have a try at making my own granola instead!  By making it myself, I would be able to tailor the granola to suit all our tastes.  Lil’ L loves nutty granola, I love a mix of nuts and dried fruits, while Mark will eat anything.

Maple Pecan Granola

By making our own, we could also omit the refined sugars and oils that are found in shop-bought granolas and replace them with healthy, natural alternatives.

Maple Pecan Granola Ingredients

For breakfast, we love serving this granola with non dairy milk or yoghurt.

Maple Pecan Granola

It is also delicious layered with yoghurt and berries in a parfait (we use frozen berries as they turn the yogurt a beautiful colour as they thaw!)  These can be served as breakfast, dessert or even a post-school snack.

Berry Granola Parfait

Please note that the recipe below has been updated in 2018 to bring it into line with the recipe that appears in the Bit of the Good Stuff cookbook.

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It’s so simple to make your own granola. In fact, with very little assistance, the kids could easily make their own! Lil’ L prefers his granola to be “chunky cluster” and we’ve found a simple method of doing this which we’ve set out below.  

Makes approximately 5 cups (10 servings)
Hands on time: 10 minutes    Ready in: 60 minutes

Ingredients

300g / 3 cups rolled oats (use GF oats, if needed)

100 g / ½ cup buckwheat groats* (washed and drained)
40g / 4 TBSP fine wholemeal (whole wheat pastry) flour, chapatti flour or gluten-free flour
30g / ⅓ cup dessicated coconut

60g / ½ cup pecans, roughly chopped

30g / ¼ cup flaked almonds

30g / 3 TBSP coconut sugar or unrefined caster sugar

½-1 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg

¼ tsp sea salt

150ml / ½ cup maple syrup (or other natural liquid sweetener. I use Clarks Original Maple Syrup which is a carob and maple blend)

3 TBSP virgin coconut oil, melted

*I add buckwheat to my granolas as it’s a great source of protein and adds another dimension of texture. In the UK, it’s available in the wholefoods section of Tesco and from health food stores.  If you can’t get hold of buckwheat, you can substitute with another ½ cup of oats or other grain.

 Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 150C (130C fan) / 300F. Line a large baking tray (38 x 26cm / 15 x 10 inches) with non-stick baking paper. If your coconut oil is solid, place it in a heat-proof howl in the oven for a couple of minutes to melt it (be careful when you remove it as the container will be very hot!)

2.  In a large bowl, mix together the oats, buckwheat, dessicated coconut, nuts, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Stir in the maple syrup. Pour in the coconut oil and stir until the grains are thoroughly coated.

3.  Spread the granola out evenly on the prepared baking tray and press down hard so that the mixture sticks together as if you were making a thin granola bar. Bake for 40 minutes, until the granola has lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to completely cool (it will firm up as it cools).

4. Break up the granola into clusters. (Don’t worry if the pieces from the centre of the tray feel a little soft as I find they firm up over time). Stored in an airtight container in a cool place, the granola will keep for weeks.

5.This granola is delicious served with non-dairy milk or yoghurt, and a sprinkling of your favourite dried fruits, nuts and seeds. I often add a sprinkling of chopped walnuts and ground linseed for an omega-3 boost and goji berries for vitamin C.

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Pin for later ⬇️

Last Christmas, I thought I’d treat Lil’ L to some “luxury” shop-bought granola.  I bought two different brands for him, both of which included a selection of his favourite nuts and no dried fruits.  It turns out he didn’t like either of them as they were “way too sugary”!  Instead, he asked whether he could have some of our home-made granola.  Since we’d run out, he was even prepared to postpone his Christmas Day breakfast for 45 minutes until a fresh batch was baked!  I wasn’t expecting to be making granola on Christmas morning but I was happy to oblige. Thank goodness it only takes a few minutes to prepare!  We won’t be buying shop-bought granolas any more.  Home made is best by a long shot!

And if you like chocolate, how about trying our chocolate clusters? Totally scrumptious and perfect for breakfasts, snacks and desserts 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone xx

Do you make your own granolas?  If so, what is your favourite flavour combination? If you have any published recipes, please do link up below. 

17 thoughts on “Maple Pecan Granola Clusters

  1. Oh this is an easy recipe..PLUS I have everything at the house. This would make the perfect snack to take with me on our weekend trip to the beach.

    Hopefully I will be able to carve time out tonight to put this together.

    I had to laugh at your comment about Christmas. How funny that Lil’ L was willing to put everything on hold so that he could have exactly the granola he wanted. I don’t know too many kids who unwilling to compromise.

    I hope he enjoyed it and that you still had a fabulous Christmas morning.

    Have a wonderful weekend Sharon 🙂

  2. Sharon, this looks gorgeous. I’m a big granola lover but am yet to make my own.

    I love that your little one thought the shop bought variety was too sugary and preferred your homemade one. That’s fantastic.

    Where do you get your coconut sugar from?

    1. Hi Nikki!
      I absolutely love coconut sugar. It’s got the most amazing caramel flavour and beautiful texture that melts in your mouth. As an added bonus, it’s low GI and rich in nutrients! It’s a bit pricey, but definitely worth it. I buy mine from my local health food store or from Elements for Life. Online, there are a number of places you can purchase it, including these:
      http://www.elementsforlife.co.uk/shop/superfoods-ingredients/coconut-products/coconut-blossom-sugar
      http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/326000_Biona_Organic_Coconut_Palm_Sugar__Unrefined_250g.html
      http://www.healthysupplies.co.uk/coconut-palm-sugar-500g-biona.html
      http://www.amazon.co.uk/Biona-Organic-Coconut-Palm-Sugar/dp/B0062Y60M0/ref=sr_1_12?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1367525061&sr=1-12&keywords=Biona
      Hope this helps! xx

  3. I’ve tried granola a few times but I’m not overly a fan of it compared to plain oats! Will have to give it another try since its been a few years 🙂

  4. Those look like proper clumps of oaty goodness! So often I see a granola recipe and it looks too loose for me so I’ve not baked any for yonks. I know coconut oil is healthy stuff, I just never have any in (only do a wholefood shop once every few months) do you think bog standard neutral flavoured oil like sunflower or rapeseed would do instead here?

    On a totally unrelated matter, I wanted to offer you a challenge! I’ve been trying to bake vegan eggless cakes and so far so good, except with carrot cake. Two horrible failures to date and I’m actually a bit scared to try again!! Then I thought of you and the lovely vegan cakes you’ve posted here and wondered if you might have one up your sleeve somewhere (well, not literally of course as that would be a bit sticky – especially with icing, but y’know). I want a tray bake style vegan carrot cake, to cut into squares. Fancy working some magic and making a vegan carrot cake disaster zone (my kitchen), safe to bake in again? No pressure 😀

    1. Yes, we like our granola nice and chunky in this house 😉 I’ve used rapeseed oil in this granola before and it worked fine (though it doesn’t enhance the flavour of the granola like virgin coconut oil does). Just make sure you press out the mixture really thin so that the middle cooks through. The granola will be soft when you first get it out of the oven, but it’ll firm up on cooling.
      I’m sorry to hear about your carrot cake disasters. Are you sure it wasn’t just a case of moving the cake too soon (ie. before it had completely cooled?) I’ve had success at making vegan carrot cupcakes, so I wonder if the same recipe would work as a tray bake? I’ll give it a try and let you know! x

      1. That would be great! I actually tried another carrot cake recipe yesterday and it, like the other two, ended up just like a gluey dough-like consistency inside. I’m concerned that my oven is too cool in the centre to cook cake batter well (and even my bread can come out a bit doughy), but if I put them high in the oven of course they burn on top. Someone on a list somewhere suggested placing a pizza stone on the bottom of the oven to help the heat radiate more evenly throughout. Though it might be time to invest in a new gas oven (I’m not a big fan of electric anyway.) Anyhow, sorry for waffling on about my baking woes, I do look forward to hearing back about your carrot cake tray bake. Hopefully if anything’s going to work out for me, it’ll be a tray bake as they’re less dense than proper cakes.

  5. This looks so delicious and a lot easier than most other recipes on the blogosphere! If it’s not too much bother, I would appreciate you putting the ingredients into grams for us – it would make me a lot less paranoid the first time I try making it!

    Thanks so much for sharing.
    x

    1. Thanks Robyn for stopping by my blog & for your lovely comments! 🙂 Yes, this granola is very easy to make. I’ll be making a fresh batch tomorrow night so I’ll weigh the ingredients and update the recipe. It’s no trouble at all!

  6. Hi Sharon! I just made your granola and thought I’d say hello! I bought some beautiful berries at the farmers market today and am excited for tomorrow’s breakfast already. I thought some granola would be nice on my yogurt/fresh berry parfait. I have this recipe pinned on my Pinterest board and refer to it whenever I want a tried and true (and healthful) granola. I haven’t had time to comment much lately but I am still reading–and loving!–all of your posts! Take care!

    1. So lovely to hear from you Candy! It’s always a pleasure to see pics of you & the boys when they crop up in my FB newsfeed ♥
      I hope you like the granola! Lil’ L has hinted numerous times over the past couple of weeks how he’d really like some granola for breakfast. We used to make it all the time but lately I’ve just not got round to it. I’ll put things right this weekend and make a big batch. It doesn’t take much effort does it?
      BTW, I’ve been testing all my pancakes recipes with GF flour and they’ve all worked out perfectly! 😀 When I get a spare mo, I’ll update all the recipes.
      Here’s wishing you & the family a wonderful weekend ♥ xx

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