While store bought granola is convenient, it’s often overloaded with sugar and preservatives. Organic and whole-grain granola brands, like Purely Elizabeth — which has 11 different flavors that we’ve ranked — may be preservative-free, but come at a fairly high cost. Homemade granola is much more economical and, more importantly, gives you complete control over what you put in it. Plus, you don’t even need a recipe because there’s a simple formula to follow for the absolute best homemade granola, no matter what ingredients you have in mind.
The ratio of ingredients that optimizes homemade granola’s taste and texture is 3-1-1-1: three parts oats, one part nuts, one part seeds, and one part dried fruit or other extra ingredient. Oats are the base of any granola, which is why they should be the most plentiful ingredient of your granola. Smaller proportions of nuts, seeds, and dried fruits sprinkled in will provide an even distribution of the flavors and textures.
Another ratio to keep in mind is wet ingredients to dry ingredients, as you’ll toss the dry ingredients with some sort of fat and a sweetener to bind and season the granola before baking. A 6:1 ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients is a good rule of thumb. As far as a ratio of oil to sweetener, that’s up to you. For example, if you want a sweeter granola, you can use a 1:1 ratio of oil to sweetener. If you don’t want a sweetener, just use oil.
More tips for the best homemade granola
The ratios of dry ingredients to wet ingredients along with the ratio of grains to secondary ingredients give you the blueprint for making well-balanced homemade granola with whatever pantry staples you have on hand. However, there are plenty of other tips for making the best granola at home regarding supplemental ingredients and execution. Whole oats are the ideal type for granola, but you can swap a portion of the oats with other grains for more depth of texture, flavor, and nutrition. For example, you can try this recipe for sorghum granola.
While dried fruit is an important part of the granola equation, you shouldn’t add it in with the rest of your dry ingredients. Since dried fruit is already dried out and devoid of most moisture, baking would make it harden or even burn, so wait until the granola has come out of the oven to add the dried fruit. While baking temperatures range from 300-350 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring your granola throughout its stint in the oven is key to even cooking; aim for stirring the granola every 15 minutes.
For a crispy, protein-packed coating, add whipped egg whites to your granola before baking. You can also switch up the type of fat used in your wet ingredients to bring flavor to your granola. For example, a blend of Amazon Fresh coconut oil and Barson’s tahini paste would make for a rich and nutty binder.
