How to make Granola with Clusters
One of my complaints with many granola recipes is that they end up with the oatmeal and other ingredients all in separate small pieces. This may be fine for eating granola as a cereal with milk, but I like chunks of granola to eat with yogurt and for snacking. The recipe I used years ago from Uncle John's Original Bread Book had great flavor, but suffered in this respect (see the recipe here). There are several recipes on the Internet that give you techniques for making granola that has "clusters" of granola. Here are the most popular of them:
- Bake Granola in a Slab, then Break Apart: America's Test Kitchen (see Almond Granola with Dried Fruit recipe below) has you pack the granola mixture down in the pan so that it forms a big slab of granola while it bakes. It is not stirred while baking; instead, the slab of granola is crumbled into the desire pieces once it is done. My feeling about this technique is that you will still end up with a bunch of granola that has crumbled into little pieces while breaking it apart.
- Add Whole Wheat Flour and Water: A second technique (see Granola recipe from Creations by Kara below) has you add whole wheat flour (not white) to the granola mixture along with a little water. The whole wheat flour helps bind the ingredients together, so when it bakes, you end up with chunks of granola. I have used a recipe that has whole wheat flour in it and can attest that this technique works. See Oat and Nut Granola with Sunflower Seeds from Bon Appétit.
- Add Oat Flour to the mix: Another technique (see Seven-Year Granola recipe below) I found is at https://travelerslunchbox.com/. The recipe uses quick oats, but I have found other recipes that use old fashioned oats ground into flour to help create clusters. The authur, Melissa, recounts a story about being in Peru and had the most wonderful granola at the quest house she stayed in. The owners's wife would not reveal the recipe and Melissa spent years trying to reproduce it. She was looking for a granola that had clusters, yet were light in texture. She recounts, "one night a couple of weeks ago, on the fifth straight batch to come out of my oven in as many days, I finally cracked the code. It was a remarkably small thing that did it, actually—just a change in the type of oats I use—but it was enough; before it had even finished cooling I knew this was the one. . . [It had] large, irregular clusters that retain their crunch to the bottom of the bowl; a light, crisp texture; a heady blend of vanilla and spice that conjures up oatmeal cookies and fragrant spice cakes."
FMM: I used this techique of using quick oats (accidently bought the wrong kind) along with some oat flour (made using a coffee grinder). I did not get as big of clusters as I have using whole wheat flour with water and a banana, and I carefully flipped the granola with a spatula while it baked. Still, I did get clusters and the texture was nice; it’s just that quite a bit of the ingredients were left loose. I did not add the banana that I normally do as discussed in Oat and Nut Granola with Sunflower Seeds and this could have been the difference. Also the granola did not seem as sweet and I followed the ingredient amounts in this recipe (Oat and Nut Granola with Sunflower Seeds). Again because I did not use the banana? I used Brazil nuts and liked them in the granola. - Add "Wet" Ingredients that soften the oats and act like a binder to make them stick together:
- Mashed banana
- Applesauce - See Cinnamon Applesauce Granola recipe below
- Egg white beaten to soft peaks - Not only does the egg white provide some additional moisture keeping you from needing to add extra oil, but its proteins act almost like glue, creating big crunchy clusters of baked granola.
- Water - some granola recipes add a bit of water
- Sourdough discard - See Seeded Sourdough Discard Granola
- Flip While Baking Instead of Stirring: A technique I would add and have used, if stirring the granola while baking rather than letting it bake into a slab, is to flip whole areas of the granola with a spatuala instead of stirring to help keep the granola in larger chunks. Granola tends to brown more quickly near the edges and the reason for stirring, or flipping, is to move the pieces near the edge to the middle, and vice versa, so it browns more evenly.
- Add More Oats: From https://www.thekitchn.com/, "For every 6 cups or so of oat mix, whisk together 1/4 cup of canola or olive oil, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1/4 cup honey in a small bowl. Toss this syrup together with the oat mix, spread it out on a sheet pan, and bake at 300° for 45-60 minutes, until the mix is crispy. Stir occasionally, but delicately – you don’t want to break up the granola too much, after all! We’ve also noticed that clumpier granola seems to have a higher percentage of oats to other ingredients. Oats stick to each other much easier and more firmly than they do with other, heavier ingredients. If it seems like your mix doesn’t have a lot of oats, try adding another cup or two of rolled oats before cooking."
Almond Granola with Dried Fruit
from America's Test Kitchen
Technique: Bake in a slab and break part after baking.
Store-bought granola suffers from many shortcomings. It’s often loose and gravelly and/or infuriatingly expensive. We wanted to make our own granola at home, with big, satisfying clusters and crisp texture. The secret was to firmly pack the granola mixture into a rimmed baking sheet before baking. Once it was baked, we had a granola “bark” that we could break into crunchy clumps of any size.
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup packed (2 1/3 ounces) light brown sugar
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups (10 ounces) whole raw almonds, chopped coarse
2 cups raisins or other dried fruit, chopped
1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Whisk maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in large bowl. Whisk in oil. Fold in oats and almonds until thoroughly coated.
3. Transfer oat mixture to prepared baking sheet and spread across sheet into thin, even layer (about 3/8 inch thick). Using stiff metal spatula, compress oat mixture until very compact. Bake until lightly browned, 40 to 45 minutes, rotating pan once halfway through baking. Remove granola from oven and cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 1 hour. Break cooled granola into pieces of desired size. Stir in dried fruit. (Granola can be stored in airtight container for up to 2 weeks.)
Makes about 9 cups
Granola
from https://www.creationsbykara.com/
Technique: whole wheat flour and water
Chunky homemade granola made with oats, honey, brown sugar, coconut, and nuts.
I love granola with large chunks in it, and that’s one reason I love this recipe so much. The whole wheat flour helps bind the ingredients together, so when it bakes, you end up with delicious chunks of granola! Whole wheat flour is definitely a must, regular white flour is too finely ground. I tried it once, and it made a bit of a gummy mess when I stirred in the wet ingredients. It threw off the texture of the final product too.
Crisp rice cereal makes for a lighter granola that is easier to chew. You can use all bran cereal instead of crisp rice cereal. The granola will be higher in fiber, but have a more dense texture.
Note: Cut recipe in half or even into one-third or one-fourth.
7 cups old fashioned oats
1 cups coconut
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups chopped nuts
1 cup wheat germ
2 cups crisp rice cereal
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup honey
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup coconut oil
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
Stir together oats, coconut, whole wheat flour, nuts, wheat germ, crisp rice cereal, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
Heat honey, brown sugar, water, and oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat till sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla and pour over oat mixture. Stir carefully till well coated.
Divide the wet mixture between 2 greased 15x10" cookie sheets with sides.
Bake at 275 for one hour, stirring after 30 minutes. Cool completely and store in airtight container.
You can also add raisins, dates, craisins, or any other dried fruit after the granola is cool.
If stored in an airtight container, it will last perfectly for about a month. It starts losing its crunchiness after that, but it’s still edible.
Yield: 24 servings
Seven-Year Granola
from https://travelerslunchbox.com/
Technique: uses quick oats, oat flour and water
Okay, so what exactly makes this granola different? I’m no kitchen scientist, but I can point out the things that seem to have the biggest impact. One thing is the addition of oat flour, which helps the grains and nuts stick together into those much-coveted clusters. Another is the use of sugar; as much I like liquid sweeteners like honey and maple syrup, they seem to produce a tougher, chewier granola. Finally, the right kind of oats are essential. For years I only baked with regular rolled (‘old fashioned’) oats because that’s what recipes called for, but as soon as I switched to the smaller, thinner ‘quick oats’, the changes were remarkable—clusters formed, everything baked faster, and the texture became exquisitely light and crunchy. If you can’t find quick oats where you live—and I have lived in a few places where oats come in one variety only—here’s what I would do: pulse rolled oats in a food processor a few times to break them down to about half their original size. It won’t be exactly the same but it will come close.
1 lb. (450g, about 5 1/2 cups) quick oats
3 cups (750ml/about 300g) coarsely chopped raw nuts and/or seeds (I usually use a mixture of almonds, hazelnuts and pumpkin seeds, but use whatever tickles your fancy)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground mace (or nutmeg)
1 cup, packed (200g) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (115g/1 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup (80ml) water
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
dried fruit, at your discretion
Preheat the oven to 300F/150C. In a food processor, coffee grinder or blender, grind half the oats to a fine powder. In a large bowl, combine the whole oats, ground oats, nuts, seeds and spices. In a microwave-safe bowl (or in a saucepan over medium heat), combine the brown sugar, butter and water and heat just until the butter has melted and the mixture is bubbly. Stir the mixture together until smooth, then stir in the salt and vanilla. Pour this mixture over the oats and nuts, stirring well to coat (I usually do this with my hands). It should be uniformly moist – stir in another tablespoon or two of water if it isn’t. Let stand for about ten minutes.
Spread the mixture out on a large baking sheet, separating it into irregular clumps with your fingers, and allowing space between the clumps for the hot air to circulate. Slide into the middle of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven and stir, gently breaking up the mixture into small-to-medium sized clumps. Return to the oven and bake another 15 minutes or so before stirring again. Repeat the bake-and-stir until the mixture is a uniform golden brown and completely dry; this usually takes 1-1 1/2 hours. Cool completely, then stir in any dried fruit you want to use.
Store in a covered container at room temperature. Serve with milk or plain yogurt and fresh fruit as desired.
Yield: about 8 cups
Cinnamon Applesauce Granola
from https://iheartvegetables.com/
Technique: uses applesauce
FMM: You could also add dried apples if fruit is desired in the mix.
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup agave (or honey if you’re not vegan)
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Combine the applesauce, agave, coconut oil, and vanilla. Stir in the cinnamon and salt. Make sure it’s well combined. Stir in the oats and walnuts until well coated.
Spray a large, rimmed baking sheet with coconut oil or non-stick spray. Spread out the granola into an even layer.
Bake on the middle rack for 12-15 minutes. (You want it to just begin to brown on the bottom.)
Gently flip over with a spatula. If you like really clumpy granola, be careful not to break it apart.
Bake for another 12-15 minutes until the granola is crunchy.
Set aside and let cool.
Transfer to an airtight container to store it.
Yield: 2 cups
