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This healthy peanut butter granola is a deliciously sweet and crunchy make-ahead breakfast or snack with just 9 pantry ingredients! Plus, it’s gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, and optionally refined sugar-free!
Table of Contents
- Crunchy Vegan Granola Recipe with Peanut Butter
- The Ingredients
- What Else Could I Add To Homemade Granola?
- How to Make Granola With Peanut Butter?
- FAQs
- Top Recipe Tips and Notes
- Storage Instructions
- What To Serve With Homemade Peanut Butter Granola?
- More Vegan Peanut Butter Snacks
- Easy Peanut Butter Granola Recipe
Crunchy Vegan Granola Recipe with Peanut Butter
When it comes to inexpensive but delicious and nutritious vegan breakfast ideas, oats are one of our staples. Whether it’s making a big bowl of oatmeal, chewy pumpkin oatmeal cookies, blueberry overnight oats, or peanut oatmeal balls, most of the options we enjoy are soft and chewy. For those days you’re craving some crunch, though, you HAVE to try this homemade peanut butter granola!
Not only is making your own granola ridiculously simple to do—requiring just 9 pantry ingredients and 10 minutes of hands-on prep – but since the ingredients are all inexpensive pantry staples, you can also save a lot of money. Even better, you’ll be 100% in control of the ingredients, right down to the sweetener you use, optional mix-ins, making it nut-free (!), and even the cluster size!
Best of all, this homemade granola recipe with peanut butter is delicious! It’s sweet and a little savory, packed with nutty flavor, and wonderfully crunchy. More so, it’s packed with a healthy dose of omega-3s and staying power to keep you full until lunch. Plus, it even stores for a couple of weeks in your pantry. All you need to do is decide what you want to serve it with!
The Ingredients
Prepare this easy peanut butter granola recipe with just 9 inexpensive pantry staples, most of which are likely in your kitchen right now.
- Oats: It’s best to use old-fashioned rolled oats. Gluten-free if necessary.
- Peanut butter: It’s best to use natural peanut butter, crunchy or smooth, made from peanuts only (no added sugars and oils). Other nut or seed butters will work, too, like almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, etc.
- Nuts & Seeds: We used chopped walnuts and flax meal, but you can use any raw and unsalted nuts/seeds you’d like: pecans, almonds, cashews, pepitas, chia seeds, etc.
- Cinnamon: This warming spice pairs perfectly with peanut butter.
- Applesauce: Unsweetened applesauce is a great low-fat binder and will add a subtle sweetness to the homemade vegan granola.
- Oil: Fat is important to give the peanut butter granola clusters the correct texture. Any neutral oil, like canola oil, will work. Coconut oil also works, but you’ll need refined coconut oil for no taste.
- Sugar: We love the caramel flavor of brown sugar, but if you’d prefer an unrefined sweetener, try coconut sugar. You could also go sugar-free, with erythritol.
- Vanilla extract: Use natural vanilla for the best flavor.
- Salt: Salt is great for enhancing the various flavors in DIY granola.
What Else Could I Add To Homemade Granola?
You can add any of the below ingredients to your homemade peanut butter granola recipe for extra texture and flavor. We recommend adding them once the granola has cooled.
- Peanuts: For crunch. Mix them in before baking the healthy homemade granola.
- Dried fruit: We like combining this peanut butter granola with freeze-dried/dried apple or banana chips. However, you can also use raisins, dates, cranberries, blueberries, etc.
- Vegan chocolate: Add some mini dark chocolate chips or chunks for a delicious dairy-free chocolate peanut butter granola. For a sugar-free option, mix in some cacao nibs instead.
- Shredded coconut: Add a few tablespoons of unsweetened toasted shredded coconut or coconut flaked for flavor and texture. If you only have the raw versions, add them in the last 10-15 minutes, so they toast in the oven.
How to Make Granola With Peanut Butter?
- 1) First, preheat the oven to 250F/120C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- 2) Then, combine the oats, nuts, flax meal, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl, and mix well.
- 3) Meanwhile, combine the peanut butter, sugar, applesauce, and oil in a saucepan and heat over medium until well combined. Then, remove it from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
- 4) Pour the peanut butter mixture into the bowl with the oats and mix well. Then divide the peanut butter granola between the two baking sheets, spreading it into a thin, even layer.
To make peanut butter granola clusters, press the layer of granola mixture firmly before baking it, and ‘flip’ it rather than stirring it.
- 5) Bake the vegan granola for 50-60 minutes, stirring it every 15 minutes, until it’s golden brown and lightly crisp. Then remove it from the oven and allow it to cool completely before breaking it apart. Enjoy!
FAQs
Yes, that should work fine using a 1:1 ratio of dry to wet sweetener (like maple syrup or agave). Date paste should also work to help reduce the amount of sugar.
If you want to make larger peanut butter granola clusters, ensure the mixture is wet, not crumbly, before transferring it to the pan. Using a liquid sweetener (and increasing the amount) can also help.
Also, press the mixture into the baking pan before baking and ‘flip’ it with a spatula rather than stirring it while it bakes. Then leave it to cool COMPLETELY before breaking it into pieces (it hardens as it cools).
It will look golden and lightly crisp with a toasty smell. It may still be a little soft, too, but it’ll harden as it cools. To test if it’s ready, remove a piece from the pans. If they harden within a couple of minutes, they’re ready. If not, continue to bake.
You could try using other ‘flaked’ grains, like rice flakes, rye, quinoa, spelt, or barley. However, we haven’t tried this.
While there are homemade granola recipes without oil, we’ve found we lose too much of the crunch by omitting it entirely. You could try reducing it slightly, though, or replacing some with more peanut butter (which has natural oils).
Top Recipe Tips and Notes
- Experiment with add–ins: With so many options, have fun experimenting to find your favorite flavor combinations.
- Don’t overcrowd the pan: If you add too much, it won’t toast evenly and may not become crunchy. Likewise, not adding enough means the homemade granola won’t form clusters.
- Let it cool completely before breaking it apart: It firms up as it cools and becomes sturdy. This is particularly important if you want clusters.
- Adjust the sweetness: Increase/reduce the sugar or even use a sugar-free option.
Storage Instructions
Allow the easy homemade granola to cool completely before storing it in an airtight container/jar either at room temperature (away from humidity) for 2 weeks or in the freezer for 3-4 months.
Allow it to thaw for just a few minutes at room temperature before using the homemade granola from the freezer.
If it gets a little soft, pop it back in the oven at 350F/175C for a few minutes to crisp up again.
What To Serve With Homemade Peanut Butter Granola?
Along with enjoying this vegan granola as a healthy cereal with dairy-free milk (we love ours with banana, too), you could also serve it with/over:
- Dairy-free yogurt bowls or parfaits
- Smoothie bowls
- Grilled fruit (or baked fruit)
- Vegan ice cream (or banana nice cream)
- By the handful, as a snack
You can also use this healthy homemade granola to make granola bars like these gluten-free granola bars, cups, and other granola-based treats.
More Vegan Peanut Butter Snacks
- Peanut butter banana bars
- Peanut butter stuffed dates
- Chocolate peanut butter pretzel bars
- Chocolate-coated peanut trail mix balls
- Peanut butter granola bars
- Chocolate and peanut butter rice Krispy balls
- Chocolate peanut butter bark
Photos by Alfonso Revilla
Easy Peanut Butter Granola
Video
Ingredients
- 6 cups of old-fashioned oats
- 1 ½ cups of finely chopped walnuts
- ½ cup of flax meal (ground flax seeds)
- 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of peanut butter
- ¾ cup of brown sugar
- ½ cup of applesauce
- ⅓ cup of canola oil
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F ( 120 degrees C ). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- In a large bowl, combine the oats, walnuts, flax meal, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the peanut butter, brown sugar, applesauce, and canola oil. Heat over medium and stir, just until ingredients are well-combined. Remove from heat, add the vanilla and stir again.
- Pour the peanut butter mixture over the oat mixture and combine thoroughly.
- Divide the granola between baking sheets, spreading evenly. Bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes, until the granola is golden and feels dry.
- Allow to cool completely and store in an air-tight container.
Notes
- Experiment with add–ins: With so many options, have fun experimenting to find your favorite flavor combinations.
- Don’t overcrowd the pan: If you add too much, it won’t toast evenly and may not become crunchy. Likewise, not adding enough means the homemade granola won’t form clusters.
- Let it cool completely before breaking it apart: It firms up as it cools and becomes sturdy. This is particularly important if you want clusters.
- Adjust the sweetness: Increase/reduce the sugar or even use a sugar-free option.
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Yummy!!!
The best homemade granola!
This peanut butter granola is a great snack to have around, and the flavors are great. Thanks for the recipe!
Definitely great to enjoy in so many ways! I love it with some v yogurt 🙂
A dream! Peanut butter + granola is heavenly! I love the crunch and peanut-buttery flavor. It’s so great to have such an easy and delicious topping for my plant-based yogurt breakfast 😀
Yessss – such a great pair and even better with v yogurt!
This granola is so yummy! Love adding it on top of my coconut yogurt in the morning 🙂
Morning granola is the best!
Love snacking on this granola!
are the calories for the whole batch?
Per serving, so 1 cup!