0080000Extra Large Granola Clusters to pop all day long. Serve it with milk for breakfast, over ice cream for dessert, with fruit as a snack, or even straight up anytime of day!
As I laid awake in bed last night I knew I had to come up with a recipe for you guys. My mental conversation went something like this. I have no idea what to make! Chicken? No, done a lot of that lately. Shrimp? Maybe… I do have some in the freezer. Breakfast? Yes! Frittata? Eh, maybe later. Granola! Ding! Ding! Ding!
But I knew it couldn’t be just any granola. It had to be something you could eat even if there wasn’t a spoon in sight. There needed to be large clusters of granola that I could take to work to munch on, or even to eat in the morning as more of a cereal.
This recipe is super simple there isn’t much to it. Just oats, sweetener, spices, and oil. Toss it all together bake it off and break into the large lovely clusters that will be hard to keep your hands off of.
The trick for getting nice clustered granola is making sure to pack the granola on the baking sheet you use. You’ll see in the recipe that I pack this granola three times. Once before it goes in the oven, once right after stirring during baking, and once right when it comes out of the oven.
I won’t lie to you guys the baking sheet size I picked seemed to be too large at the start. I had to push the granola together into a free form rectangle on my baking sheet. But it seemed to work out for me in the end. Because when I went to break apart my granola it filled the whole sheet! This really lets the granola get enough air to cool properly.
Look at that cluster. Nom nom!
Now, that being said, if you do like your granola to be more on the smaller/more crumbled side. Simply skip the steps of packing the granola together on the baking sheet. Just gently stir and be happy. Be sure to keep more of an eye on it in terms of baking time. Since its spaced a little further apart cook time may need to be reduced!
These crispy but chewy granola clusters have been flying off the pan since they came out of the oven. I can think of a whole bunch of ways to use this recipe! But honestly I can’t wait to eat it on top of a cold and creamy batch of banana ice cream…. yes please!
Plan to make this recipe? Be sure to post it on Instagram and tag @theocdkitchen so that I can see how it turns out! Enjoy!
- 4 cups old fashioned oats (certified gluten free)
- 4 tablespoons chia seeds
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup sunflower oil
- Preheat oven to 250F
- In large mixing bowl add oats and chia, mix to combine.
- Meanwhile in small sauce pan add remaining ingredients. Heat over medium heat and cook until sugar has dissolved.
- Pour sugar mixture over oats and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Spread out into an even layer on a baking sheet. Pressing down on granola to make a solid piece.
- Bake for 1 hour. Gently stir half way through. Important! After stirring press back down into solid piece.
- Remove from oven and cool baking sheet on a rack. Once more press down on the granola to solidify it.
- Let cool for about 30 minutes. The granola should be cool to touch but slightly flexible in the middle. Begin to gently break granola into large clusters.
- Let cool fully. Store in an airtight container.
0080000
Clusters are SO the best part of any granola 😉
A piece of ertudiion unlike any other!
That’s an apt answer to an ineniestrtg question