This is the best Easy Homemade Snacking Granola, great for being on the road, afternoon snacks, and any time you need something easy to munch on with oats, nuts, seeds, and other whole ingredients.

We make Maple Pecan Granola using maple syrup regularly in our house. All five of us eat it most weekdays for breakfast. We’ll make a big batch and it lasts anywhere between 1-2 weeks.
This Snacking Granola is a little different. It’s a little sweeter, super crunchy, and meant for snacking. It can be eaten with or without yogurt and berries and it’s great to put in a little baggie and carry wherever you need it to go. It's one of my favorite snacks.
Jump to:
- 💡Recipe Inspiration
- 🌟 Why You’ll Love This Granola
- 🏡 Easy and Homemade
- 🛒 Ingredients
- 📝 How to Make Easy Homemade Snacking Granola
- 🪄 More Tips and Tricks
- 🥄 How to Store and Serve Easy Homemade Snacking Granola
- 💖 If You're Interested in More Breakfast Recipes You May Love These
- Easy Homemade Snacking Granola
💡Recipe Inspiration
Recently I took a flight for a trip across the country. I always find meal planning (or sourcing takeout) difficult and expensive while traveling. By the end of the trip, I am inevitably talking about how all I want to eat when I get home is lots of salad, fruit, and vegetables.
Breakfast can be particularly hard because the easiest options are usually cereal or pastries. Yogurt or the right kind of milk can be hard to find while traveling, and I find it’s even harder to locate the exact brand that I like.
This recipe for snacking granola is designed to solve this on-the-go problem. It can be eaten for breakfast (without yogurt) or any time of day for a snack. It's super crunchy and a little bit sweeter than we make our typical weekday granola. It's full of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. It’s a great option to bring packed in a little bag, particularly when you’re across time zones and eating at irregular intervals or subject to plane food or even on a road trip.
🌟 Why You’ll Love This Granola
Great For On-The-Go: It’s easy to pack and travels well. It’s delicious to eat on its own without anything else to dress it up.
Snacking: It's great as breakfast or snacks throughout the day. It comes in big crunchy clusters, making it easy to eat.
Whole Ingredients: It’s made with almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, and rolled oats along with unsweetened coconut flakes and dried cherries.
🏡 Easy and Homemade
Easy: This recipe takes only five minutes of prep involving chopping pecans and mixing sweetened condensed milk (gives it that sweet crunchy texture), olive oil, cinnamon, and salt. The oven does most of the work, aside from tossing the ingredients to ensure even toasting.
Homemade: Making granola at home rather than buying store-bought granola means you can control exactly what is going into your snack or breakfast and avoid any additives. You can reduce the amount of sugar by adding less sweetened condensed milk or increasing the amount of nuts or seeds. It also makes the whole house smell so good when baking.
🛒 Ingredients
Below are the ingredients needed to make this Easy Homemade Snacking Granola as well as a few tips as to where to get the ingredients and what to look for.

- Rolled Oats: Use old-fashioned oats, not steel-cut oats. Not all oats are created equal. I’ve been making granola with rolled oats for years and sometimes I’m disappointed with oats that are super dry and brittle. I like the rolled oats from Trader Joe’s, Costco, and even Quaker Oats. Steer clear of the Whole Foods rolled oats. For gluten-free granola be sure to buy gluten-free oats.
- Pecans: This recipe calls for a fair amount of pecans which can get expensive. If you plan to make more than one batch, consider buying a large bag from Costco which tends to be much less expensive per volume.
- Pumpkin Seeds: There are two kinds of pumpkin seeds that you might find at the store. This recipe calls for the little green pumpkin seeds, often labeled as pepitas. You might also find pumpkin seeds that look like the ones you see when you carve a pumpkin. These do not work as well as the little green pepitas. You can substitute pepitas for sunflower seeds.
- Almonds: I recommend using sliced almonds, rather than slivered or whole, but feel free to use what you have accessible to you and whatever is less expensive.
- Coconut Flakes: I like to add coconut flakes but I err on the side of using less so that the granola doesn’t end up tasting like coconut. Use unsweetened coconut flakes rather than shredded coconut, or omit it altogether if you prefer.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Use a mild-tasting olive oil so that it does not overpower the taste of the granola. You can use coconut oil, but it's not an ingredient I tend to keep in my house.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: This is an atypical ingredient for granola, but it adds a sweet crunchy consistency, inspired by Kelly Senyei from the Secret Ingredient Cookbook.
- Cinnamon: It’s the one spice that makes a big difference to buy and use a high-quality version. Poor-quality cinnamon can ruin the taste of the entire recipe. I recommend Ceylon Cinnamon from a brand called Simply Organic.
- Salt: To balance the sweetness.
- Dried Cherries: I like using dried cherries here because they often do not come with added sugar (which is a nice balance when using sweetened condensed milk) and they add a hint of sourness. Feel free to use cranberries or other dried fruit.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
📝 How to Make Easy Homemade Snacking Granola
Below are the step-by-step instructions and photos for how to make this Easy Homemade Snacking Granola.
*Note: The recipe card with instructions, ingredient list, and quantities is included further below these step-by-step photos.

Prep: Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Step 1. Toast the Oats: Spread the oats out over a baking sheet. Bake at 325°F for 10 minutes. Remove and toss.
Step 2. Toast the Nuts, etc: Spread the pecans, pumpkin seeds, almonds, and unsweetened coconut flakes over the baking sheet. Bake for another 8 minutes.

Step 3. Mix Wet Ingredients: While the oats, nuts, etc. are in the oven combine the extra virgin olive oil, sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.
Step 4. Combine Wet and Dry Ingredients: Add the oat, nut, and seed mixture to the wet ingredients and toss to coat.

Step 1. First Bake for 10 Minutes: Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and toss.
Step 2. Second Bake, 10 More Minutes: Bake the granola for 10 more minutes until it is golden brown. Add the dried cherries on top and allow to cool. Break the granola into large clusters.
Let the granola cool fully before storing, otherwise, the heat/steam will soften the granola that you just worked so hard to make crispy.
🪄 More Tips and Tricks
- Toasting the Oats: Oats, nuts, and coconut flakes toast at different rates. To get the most out of your granola this recipe calls for toasting the oats first. This brings out the toasted oat flavor without causing the nuts and other ingredients to burn.
- Chopping Pecans: Pecans can be quite large, so I recommend chopping them before adding them to the mix. This allows a little bit of all the ingredients to fit on one spoon (or one handful) at a time.
- Dried Fruit at the End: Add the dried fruit after the granola has finished baking. The fruit has already been dried, so adding it early would dry it out even further ruining the texture.
- Sheet Pan Size: Use a standard half sheet pan that is 18x13 inches and goes up about 1 inch on the sides. If you’re using a smaller sheet pan, you’ll need to scale all the ingredients back so as to not overcrowd the pan.
- Customize: Feel free to mix and match your add-ins and customize the recipe. You can add different nuts, chia seeds, sesame seeds, white chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips (after it has been baked), or top with flaky sea salt. Or if you're not a fan of coconut, leave it out. The important thing is to keep the total volume roughly the same so that it doesn't end up being too sweet or not sweet enough.
🥄 How to Store and Serve Easy Homemade Snacking Granola
- To Store: Store this homemade granola recipe in an airtight container at room temperature. It will last 1-2 weeks. We often store ours in mason jars or jam jars.
- To Serve: Serve as an on-the-go snack, pack in snack baggies, or small Tupperware, or serve over Greek yogurt, with milk, with fresh fruit, on ice cream, or any other way. Serve it over a Smoothie Bowl, or use it as a topping for Banana Bread. I've even added granola to s'mores! It's very versatile!

💖 If You're Interested in More Breakfast Recipes You May Love These
If you've tried this Easy Homemade Snacking Granola or any other recipe on my site, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. I'd love to hear from you!

Easy Homemade Snacking Granola
Ingredients
- 4 cups rolled oats
- 1½ cups pecans, chopped
- ¾ cup pumpkin seeds look for green pepitas
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- ½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¾ cup sweetened condensed milk
- ½ tablespoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup dried cherries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- Spread the oats evenly over the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, toss, and top with chopped pecans, pumpkin seeds, sliced almonds, and unsweetened coconut flakes. Bake for 8 minutes and remove.
- Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl whisk the extra virgin olive oil, sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon, and salt.
- Add the oat mixture from the baking sheet to the mixing bowl and toss.
- Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the mixture out evenly over the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, remove, stir, and bake for 10 more minutes.
- Top with the dried cherries and allow to cool fully. Break the granola into clusters.
Notes
- Toasting the Oats: Oats, nuts, and coconut flakes toast at different rates. To get the most out of your granola this recipe calls for toasting the oats first. This brings out the toasted oat flavor without causing the nuts and other ingredients to burn. Don't be tempted to toast them for more than 10 minutes or they are more likely to burn.
- Chopping Pecans: Pecans can be quite large, so I recommend chopping them before adding them to the mix. This allows a little bit of all the ingredients to fit on one spoon (or one handful) at a time. You can also consider chopping the dried cherries before adding them, but in this recipe, I keep it simple and skip it. They are less sweet than cranberries, so one whole cherry is not as overwhelming in one bite.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: Don't be thrown off by the sweetened condensed milk. It's an unusual ingredient for granola, but it is the thing that gives the granola that sweet (but not overly sweet) crunchy consistency.
- Cinnamon: It’s the one spice that makes a big difference when buying and using a high-quality version. Poor-quality cinnamon can ruin the taste of the entire recipe. I recommend Ceylon Cinnamon from a brand called Simply Organic, which you can find at Whole Foods or some specialty grocery stores.
- Dried Fruit at the End: Add the fried fruit after the granola has finished baking. The fruit has already been dried, so adding it early would dry it out even further ruining the texture.
- Sheet Pan Size: Use a standard half-sheet pan that is 18x13 inches and goes up about 1 inch on the sides. The size of the sheet pan dictates how much of the oats and other ingredients you can fit into the pan and still get a nice even toast on them in the oven. If you’re using a smaller sheet pan, you’ll need to scale all the ingredients back so as to not overcrowd them.
- Mix and Match: Feel free to mix and match your add-ins. This is a very customizable recipe. You can add different nuts, or omit an ingredient like the unsweetened coconut flakes. The important thing is to keep the total volume roughly the same so that it doesn't end up being too sweet or not sweet enough.
Leave a Reply