Once you make homemade granola, you may never go back! Maple Pecan Applesauce Granola is the perfect breakfast, loaded with oats, pecans, walnuts, maple syrup and that delicious combination of cinnamon and applesauce! Use it to top yogurt, oatmeal, plain cereal like Cheerios or Chex, or just eat it by the handful!
Why We Love It!
- Homemade Granola is so delicious! - If you haven't tried it, try it! Maple Pecan Granola with it's apple cinnamon flavor is perfect for fall baking! It's a staple in our house, try our other favorite Almond Vanilla Granola with Big Clusters!
- Better for you! - Fresh from the oven, that apple pie smell, homemade applesauce granola is made with real, better for you ingredients. In many baking recipes, applesauce is a substitute for oil. So this Applesauce Granola is healthier because it reduces the amount of oil needed. There is still some coconut oil, but it's far superior to its store-bought counterpart, with no refined sugar or preservatives!
- Customize it to make it your own! - You need to keep the wet to dry ingredients proportioned the same. But, from there you can try different nut and seed combinations, honey instead of maple syrup, different dried fruits (adding dried apple chips would be amazing!), make it your own!
- Let the kids help! - Homemade granola is one of my kid's favorite things to help with in the kitchen. They've been making granola since they were two, they love to measure, stir, smell, mix, and sample!
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Ingredients & Substitutions
Packed with protein, this healthy granola is full of good quality ingredients like oats, nuts, seeds and applesauce.
- Regular Rolled Oats - Use regular rolled oats, or anything labeled thick cut oats or old fashioned oats. Not steel cut or quick oats. I like to get these out of the bulk bin at the store for the best quality, price and to reuse my bags over and over.
- Pecans & Walnuts - You can leave the nuts whole or chop them, and sub any nuts you like including almonds or cashews.
- Seeds - I like to use any combination of pumpkin, sunflower, flax, or chia seeds.
- Shredded Coconut - Adds a hint of sweetness.
- Cinnamon & Salt - Don't leave out the salt! This salted maple granola gives you that salty sweet combo and brings lots of flavor to the granola! If you are watching your salt intake, you can use half.
- Applesauce - Applesauce gives you that autumn harvest apple flavor, which marries perfectly with the cinnamon and maple syrup. It is also healthier, cutting the amount of oil needed in the recipe. In the fall we love making our own Freezer Applesauce!
- Coconut Oil - Can be melted in the microwave. I've used olive oil when I'm out of coconut oil and it works great!
- Maple Syrup - Be sure to use real maple syrup, not pancake syrup, as the sweetener for the granola. You could also substitute honey or use a combination. The maple pecan granola flavor is truly my favorite! It has such a rich depth to it that store-bought granola, sweetened with sugar, just doesn't have.
- Raisins - Don't bake the raisins! Add them after the granola is baked and cooled. Any dried fruit will work here such as cranberries, cherries, sliced apricots, golden or regular raisins. Or try apple chips or any form of dehydrated apples, added when the granola is cooled.
Instructions
Step 1 - Preheat the oven to 250°. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl (not the raisins).
Add the wet ingredients in a small glass measuring cup and whisk together (coconut oil can be microwaved and then measured).
Step 2 - Add your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Step 3 - Spread your granola on two large baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 75 minutes without opening the oven or stirring. When the time is up, turn the oven off, but leave the granola in the warm oven until cooled.
A few hours or even overnight, do not open the oven or stir it!
Step 4 - When cooled, add dried fruit and store in a jar.
Tips for the Best Granola
- Use two large sheet pans to spread the granola out evenly. This will allow the granola to dry out and crisp.
- Bake it on parchment paper, which really helps your nice big clusters stay intact and keeps your cinnamon pecan granola from sticking to the pan. You can reuse your parchment paper several times just for making granola (go green!).
- Don't open the oven or stir as your granola slowly bakes for 75 minutes.
- When the timer is up, just turn the oven off and leave the granola in for a few hours to cool and dry out.
- Chopping the Nuts - You can decide whether you want to chop the nuts or leave them whole. I like the large pieces, plus not chopping the nuts makes granola super quick to throw together so I often don't chop them.
- If you want to use less nuts to make the granola recipe more affordable, just sub extra oats. Or, if you want to use more nuts to make it healthier, again, just sub less oats.
- Storage - Store granola is a jar or airtight container at room temperature. It will last at least a month or more. A jar of homemade granola makes a great gift!
Ways to Serve Granola beyond Yogurt
We use our cinnamon applesauce granola as a topping for lots of different breakfasts and snacks:
- Yogurt Topping with berries
- Crockpot Steel Cut Oatmeal or Homemade Instant Oatmeal - add a scoop of granola to sweeten oatmeal instead of or in addition to brown sugar!
- Cold Cereal - Add a scoop of granola to sweeten and add protein to a bowl of Cheerios, Chex or other plain cereal.
- Trail Mix - Make a quick trail mix with a few handfuls of cereal, peanuts, raisins, M&M's or chocolate chips and a few scoops of granola.
- Ice Cream Topping - Vanilla ice cream with strawberries, whipped cream, granola and a cherry on top is one of our favorites!
- Applesauce - My kids love an applesauce parfait (instead of yogurt) topped with berries and granola.
- Kid's Snack - Sprinkle granola over sliced bananas or apples and peanut butter.
- Eat it by the handful for a sweet and semi-healthy protein snack!
Recipe FAQs
Honey. This recipe uses maple syrup for a sweetener, but I've found honey makes for bigger clusters. Maple syrup is still great for flavor, so don't worry about the clusters! Additionally, don't stir your granola while it is baking. When it is done baking, turn the oven off but leave the granola in the oven while it cools. This all gives you granola with big clusters that bind together.
Yes, using parchment paper while baking granola keeps the granola from sticking to the pan. You can easily pull up the sides of the parchment paper and slide your cooked granola right into a big jar. The best part, you can reuse your sheets of parchment paper a handful of times when you make granola! So just fold them up and stick them in the cupboard, just for granola! Then you don't even need to wash your sheet pans! I have made granola without parchment paper, so yes you can do it. But you will end up scrapping the granola off the pan with a heavy metal spatula and will need to soak those pans before scrubbing them, not worth it!
No, and most recipes will tell you otherwise! As your granola bakes at a low temperature (250°F for 75 minutes), it will clump better into big clusters if you don't open the oven or stir it. When the timer is up, turn the oven off, but leave the granola in the oven to cool, again without stirring it. When it's cooled completely, you'll have a sheet of crispy crumbly, never soft, granola!
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Maple Pecan Applesauce Granola
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Print Pin RateEquipment
- 2 large baking sheets
Ingredients
- 5 cups regular rolled oats
- 1 cup pecans roughly chopped or left whole
- 1 cup walnuts roughly chopped or left whole
- ½ cup seeds any combination of sunflower, pumpkin, flax, sesame, or chia seeds
- ½ cup shredded coconut
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup applesauce
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup raisins (Do not bake, add AFTER baking!) or any dried fruit
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250°F. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl (not raisins).
- Mix wet ingredients in a small glass measuring cup (coconut oil can be microwaved and then measured).
- Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well. Spread granola on two large baking sheets lined with parchment paper (parchment paper can be reused again and again for granola!).
- Bake for 75 minutes, do not open the oven or stir it. When the time is up, turn the oven off and leave granola in the warm oven a few hours as it cools.
- When cooled, add dried fruit and store in a jar.
Notes
- The recipe can be altered in any way as long as the wet to dry ratio remains the same. For example, if you want to make the recipe more affordable, you can use more oats and less nuts as long as it totals 7 cups, etc.
- Any nuts or seeds can be substituted including almonds or cashews.
- Honey can be substituted for the maple syrup.
- Use any combination of raisins-regular or golden, craisins, dried apple, or any other dried fruit. Add them to the cooled granola after it is baked, do not bake them!
- Don't open the oven or stir the granola while it's baking.
- Nutrition information is for 1 cup of granola.
Dave Rice says
I had it for breakfast Friday with a peach and vanilla yogurt. Very good.