The Best Granola
Prep
10m
Cook
35m
Total
45m
Bigly says
OK, here we go. Granola. The BEST granola. The greatest granola ever poured into a bowl — and my neighbor who taught me this lived to be 102 and ate granola every morning. Could be a coincidence. Probably not. The man knew. He took one look at a store-bought bag and shook his head like he was watching a building collapse. He was right to.
The store-bought granola situation is a TRAGEDY. Have you looked at those bags lately? Twelve dollars. TWELVE. DOLLARS. For what? Sad little pebbles of oats glued together with corn syrup and disappointment. They print 'artisanal' on the bag and think that fixes it. It doesn't fix it. It's still pebbles. And the websites selling this stuff? You scroll to find the ingredients and you're hit with a cookie banner with 18 toggles asking if 47 advertising partners can have your zip code. Insane. A scandal. We don't do that here.
This granola? CLUSTERS. Huge clusters. Tremendous clusters. Crispy, golden, glossy, the kind where you bite one and three more come along for the ride because they refuse to be separated — that's how strong the bond is. And the secret, the cluster magic, is one egg white. ONE. Egg. White. That's the whole trick. Most cookbook authors will not tell you this. They're hiding the ball. They want you frustrated and back at the grocery store next Tuesday. Not on my watch. Believe me.
Ingredients
- 3 cupsold-fashioned rolled oats(rolled, not instant, instant is for sad people)
- 1 cupraw pecans, roughly chopped
- 1 cupraw almonds, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cupunsweetened coconut flakes
- 1/2 cupraw pumpkin seeds
- 1 tspground cinnamon
- 3/4 tspkosher salt
- 1/3 cuppure maple syrup(real, not pancake syrup, never pancake syrup)
- 1/4 cuphoney
- 1/3 cupneutral oil (avocado or light olive)
- 2 tspvanilla extract
- 1large egg white(THE CLUSTER SECRET. Do not skip.)
- 3/4 cupdried tart cherries or raisins(stirred in after baking)
Steps
- 1
Heat the oven to 300°F. Line a large rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper.
- 2
In a large bowl, combine the oats, pecans, almonds, coconut, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, and salt.
- 3
In a separate bowl, whisk the maple syrup, honey, oil, and vanilla until fully combined.
- 4
Pour the wet mixture over the dry and toss thoroughly with a spatula until every oat is coated.
- 5
Whisk the egg white in a small bowl until just foamy, then fold it into the granola mixture.
- 6
Tip the granola onto the parchment-lined sheet pan and press it down firmly into an even, compact layer about 1/2 inch thick. Pressing is what creates clusters — do not skip.
- 7
Bake 20 minutes. Rotate the pan but DO NOT stir. Bake another 12-15 minutes, until deep golden brown and the surface looks dry.
- 8
Cool the granola completely on the pan — at least 45 minutes. It crisps as it cools.
- 9
Once fully cool, break into clusters with your hands. Stir in the dried cherries. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 weeks.
One more thing
That is granola. Real granola. Granola that respects you and respects itself. You put it on yogurt, you put it on ice cream, you eat it straight out of the jar at 11pm in the kitchen with the lights off — I won't tell anybody, that's between you and the granola — and you will never, EVER again pay fourteen dollars for a bag of sad pebbles at the grocery store. They tried to rob you. Now you've taken your power back. The granola has spoken. Don't tell your friends. Keep this one for yourself.
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