Maple Pecan Granola

This Maple Pecan Granola is chock full of whole ingredients like oats, pecans, and dried cranberries. It is toasted, crunchy, slightly sweet, and wholly satisfying. When paired with yogurt and fresh berries, it leaves you feeling full all morning.

I've made this granola at least twice a month every month for ten years (and an earlier version for a year before that). And lately, I have been making it every week. At a minimum, that's 240 times. That's 240 times to fine-tune and perfect this recipe. I hope that you and your family get as much joy and full breakfast bellies from this recipe as our family has.

💡 Recipe Inspiration

When I lived in Barcelona, I started making granola for breakfast. I bought a bag of five grains or cereals. I toasted them in a small saucepan (we didn’t have an oven) and added brown sugar to make a granola. When my husband and I moved back to the US, I continued making it, adjusting it by using rolled oats, pecans, coconut flakes, cinnamon, and maple syrup instead of brown sugar. When I have them on hand, I add pumpkin seeds and raisins.

When our oldest was a toddler, he would wake up most mornings and ask for ya-ya (granola) and yocht (yogurt), which always made me feel good.

In the years since then, I’ve honed this recipe even further. I ditched the coconut flakes and the raisins, and now use dried cranberries or cherries, and I occasionally add pumpkin seeds. We eat this almost every weekday morning for breakfast with yogurt and fresh berries.

✨ My #1 Tip For Making Granola

My #1 tip for making granola is to toast the oats before making the granola.

Baking the granola at separate intervals is the thing that makes this granola so good. Oats and pecans (and pumpkin seeds) brown at different rates. If you were to add all the ingredients in at the same time either the pecans would burn or the oats would not get toasted enough. The same is true with the cranberries. If you were to add them in at the beginning (or raisins/dried cherries if you use them), they would get all dried out and gummy. So the dried cranberries get added in at the very end.

✏️ Variations

Here are a few suggestions for variations.

• Nuts & Seeds: Almonds, Walnuts, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds
• Dried Fruit: Raisins, Dried Cherries (these can be quite sour, so if you add them, you could balance it out with additional raisins/cranberries, which are sweeter).
• Dried Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
• Snacking Granola: Try this recipe for snacking granola with giant crunchy granola clusters.
• Sourdough Granola: Super crunchy granola that uses sourdough starter to bind the ingredients together.
• Sourdough Granola Bars: Chewy and filled with peanut butter, dried cranberries, and chocolate chips.
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Granola Bars: Great for on the go with peanut butter and chocolate chips.

🛒 Ingredients

Below are the ingredients needed to make Maple Pecan Granola.

• Rolled Oats: Not all rolled oats are created equal. I've made this with rolled oats from a dozen different brands and grocery stores. Many of them are quite good. I like Trader Joe's and Quaker Oats. I do not recommend rolled oats from Whole Foods, they tend to be more brittle and crumble easily.
• Pecans: Pecans can be quite expensive. If you are able, you can get them from Costco in a large bag for much less than you would get for a small bag at a typical grocery store.
• Cinnamon: I highly recommend buying a high-quality cinnamon. I'm not picky about any dried spices, except for cinnamon. Using a poor quality cinnamon can really negatively impact the taste of the granola. I like Ceylon Cinnamon from a brand called Simply Organic, which can be found at Whole Foods and some other grocery stores.
• Maple Syrup: Maple Syrup is another expensive ingredient, but it can be purchased at Costco for much less. Use Grade A maple syrup.
• Cranberries: Any brand works. You can actually find dried cranberries at some stores without added sugar. They're harder to find, but I like them just as much as the standard dried cranberries.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

📝 How to Make Maple Pecan Granola

Below are the step-by-step instructions and photos for how to make Maple Pecan Granola.

Prep. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Step 1. Toast the Oats: Spread the oats out on a standard half-sheet baking sheet (18x13 inches). Bake for 10 minutes.

Step 2. Mix the Oats: Use a spatula (careful not to burn your hands) to bring the oats to the center of the baking sheet. Then flip/turn over the oats in the pan. Spread the oats back out in the pan. This helps toast the oats evenly.

Step 3. Add Cinnamon and Pecans: Gently sprinkle the cinnamon on the oats. This is roughly 1½ tablespoons of cinnamon, however, a little more or a little less is okay too. I typically shake the cinnamon spice bottle over the oats so that there is a decent dusting over the entire baking sheet.

Spread the pecans over the cinnamon and oats. Bake for 10 minutes.

Step 4. Add the Maple Syrup: Gather the oats and pecans in the middle of the baking sheet with a spatula. Drizzle the maple syrup over the granola. Use a spatula to toss the oats and pecans in the maple syrup. Spread the granola back out over the baking sheet.

Bake for 6-7 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Step 5. Add Cranberries: Once the granola has cooled for a couple of minutes use a firm spatula to loosen the granola from the pan. That way the granola doesn't stick to the pan as it is cooling. Spread the granola back out, add the chopped cranberries, and allow it to fully cool, before storing in airtight containers.

🪄More Tips and Tricks

• Recipe Amount: This recipe makes enough for 1-2 weeks for our family of 5. We all eat this for breakfast most weekday mornings, even our littlest who just turned one. Any longer than 2 weeks and it gets a bit stale.
• Buying Pecans: I buy a large bag of pecans at Costco for around $10. If you don't buy them in bulk they can get quite expensive.
• Measuring Ingredients: When I make this for my family I don’t measure the ingredients. There's plenty of room for adjusting it to your own preferences. I use enough oats to cover the baking sheet, ensuring that the layer is not too thin or it may burn. I use more pecans than cranberries. I sprinkle the cinnamon straight from the spice jar, dusting the whole thing noticeably. I drizzle on a good amount of maple syrup, but not so much that it ends up tasting sticky-sweet – just enough to bring the ingredients together.
• Chopping Cranberries: In addition to the pecans, I also chop the cranberries even smaller because they are pretty sweet and even having one whole one in a spoon full of granola and yogurt is a bit too sweet for me. But you could always skip chopping them if you want to simplify it (and sometimes I do if the kids are demanding my attention and I'm short on time and patience).
• Sheet Pan Size: Use a half-sheet pan that is 18x13 inches and goes up about 1 inch on the sides. The size of the sheet pan is important because it 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.
  • Smaller Portion: For a smaller portion halve the recipe and use a smaller baking sheet.
• Don't Overtoast the Oats: Sometimes when I make this I think that the oats do not look toasted enough after 10 minutes, so I try and push it a bit and bake it for 12 or 14 minutes. I always regret it. If I push it past the 10-minute mark, the oats start to burn around the edges of the pan, which can make the whole thing taste burned or over-toasted.
• Granola With Yogurt:
  • We eat the granola with yogurt, or sometimes our kids like to eat it on its own.
  • It's worth spending some time to find a yogurt that you really like. Some can have a very strong flavor, while others are milder.
  • When shopping for yogurt I pay close attention to the amount of sugar. Many yogurts have so much sugar that sometimes you're essentially eating dessert for breakfast.
  • We love Trader Joe's yogurt. We usually get big tubs of vanilla non-fat Greek yogurt and non-fat Greek plain yogurt, and sometimes I'll get the smaller raspberry yogurts, or mix the vanilla yogurt with plain yogurt.

What To Serve With Granola

• Chia Seed Pudding With Homemade Raspberry Jam: Made with milk, yogurt, chia seeds, vanilla and maple syrup, great for meal prep for busy weekdays. Top with homemade granola.
• Raspberry Smoothie Bowl: Combine Greek yogurt and frozen raspberries. Then top with fresh berries and crunchy granola.