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Home » Sweet

Nut-Free Granola

Published: Oct 23, 2021 · Modified: Oct 28, 2022 by Lisa Russo

Spread the hangry love....

This nut-free granola features oats and seeds glazed with buttery syrup. We toast in the oven to form moreish clusters of bronzed goodness.

Do you love granola, but have a person in your family that can’t eat nuts? This granola recipe is delicious and easy to personalise. The good news is that the seeds (four types!) provide a wonderful nutty flavour and texture....without the anaphylaxis 😉. It's quite hard to find commercially-available granola that doesn't have nuts in it.

Nut-free granola served in a bowl with plain yoghurt and fresh berries.
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Don't buy granola!

Shop-bought granola costs so much (and is nowhere near as nice as homemade). Do you agree that there’s always at least one ingredient you’d rather wasn’t in there? What’s it for you? Dried fruit? (I'm not a fan) Coconut flakes? Rice puffs? Commercially-available granola is often bulked with the cheaper ingredients like sultanas and oats. Think of this recipe is a stepping-stone to your perfect granola – you can edit as you like. You can make the perfect granola for you AND save money.

Granola is one of those wonderful foods that is equal parts healthy and treat. In our house we eat it for breakfast, brunch and snacks in-between! 😊 Without doubt, oats and seeds are very good for you. We add some ‘naughtier’ stuff (sugar, butter & syrup) to:

  • elevate the toast and crunch of the oats and seeds
  • enhance their flavour
  • provide a little 'glue' power, so that we get clusters

This granola is crisp, richly-toasted and sweet (but not too much). It has a touch of salt that elevates all the other flavours. It’s wonderful eaten as is by the handful. Or you can eat it ‘properly’, with your milk and/or yoghurt of choice, with any toppings you fancy. It makes milk taste delicious - cinnamony and sweet. Your toppings could include nuts of course (if you’re not allergic!).

Jump to:
  • 🥘 Ingredients
  • 🔪 Instructions
  • 📖 Variations
  • 📖 Recipe
  • 💭 Other Breakfast Recipes

🥘 Ingredients

Rolled oats, (lots of!) seeds, coarse sugar, salt, cinnamon, rice malt syrup, butter and vanilla.

Ingredients required to make Nut-Free Granola.

Use rolled oats for granola

It's important to use large, rolled/’jumbo’ oats for granola, not quick oats. Quick oats are chopped up rolled oats. They're used for microwave porridge for a convenient short cook time. Quick oats won’t work so well for granola, being smaller and prone to being powdery.

Is granola gluten-free?

Oats are naturally gluten-free. Yet, it is often on the banned list for people with coeliac disease. Why? Because it is often processed in factories that also deal with gluten-containing grains. Contamination can occur. Traces of wheat or other gluten-containing grains can make their way into the oats. It is possible to source gluten-free oats, but make sure it says that on the bag if that’s important to you. Health food stores or online are your best bet. The rest of the ingredients in this nut-free granola recipe are gluten-free.

What can I use instead of rice malt syrup?

You substitute with any other syrupy liquid sugar, like honey, glucose or maple syrups. I’ve gone with rice malt syrup here because it’s a reasonably priced low FODMAP option.

🔪 Instructions

Quick, easy and endlessly flexible. This recipe comes together in less than 15 minutes. I've served this to friends as part of a brunch, along with cinnamon rolls and fruit salad. It’s a perfect combo. Someone always asks for the recipe. Well, here it is….

We combine wet and dry ingredients - separately first, then together.

We add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold through. Everything ends up a bit glossy with buttery/syrupy coating.

We spread out the mix on baking sheets in a thin layer for even toasting. If your baking sheets are non-stick, you don't even need to bother lining the baking sheets with baking paper. It does make it a bit easier to transfer the granola to a jar after though.

Raw granola spread out on a lined baking sheet ready to bake.

Bake for about 20 minutes in total, re-distributing the mix towards the end for more even browning. The granola will be beautifully toasted and your house will smell wonderful!

Cooked golden granola on a baking sheet line with baking paper'

Leave the granola to cool on the baking sheets before transferring to a sealed jar/container. It will harden and crisp up as it cools. If you put it in a sealed container warm, it will lose some of its crunch.

You’ll find that some shards of oats coated in seeds stay stuck together. They’ll be loosely held though – enough for you to be able to pick up with care and to eat in one bite!

A large shard of granola held between fingers.

The trickiest part of making this granola is transferring it to a jar once cooked! Make a funnel with the baking paper and tip into a jar/sealed plastic container. You won't be able to resist nibbling at the granola clusters as you do this 😋.

Granola-finished

📖 Variations

  • before baking -substitute any amount of the seeds with whole or chopped nuts.
  • after baking - stir through chocolate chips or dried fruit. Maybe dried cranberries or chopped dried apricots?. These would melt or burn if baked with the granola, but store well once you bake and cool the granola.
  • each serving - you can customise further with fresh fruit of your choice. Sliced banana or fresh berries would work well. Or a fruit salad, such as this Australian winter one.

Granola served in a bowl with plain yoghurt and fresh berries.

📖 Recipe

Granola in a bowl with yoghurt and fresh fruit.
Print Recipe
Toasted crunchy oats and seeds bound together with enough buttery syrupy goodness to make this equal parts healthy and treat . This is wonderful eaten by the handful as a snack or ‘proper’ with your dairy product of choice (it makes milk taste delicious) and any toppings you fancy.
Prep Time12 minutes mins
Cook Time20 minutes mins
Servings: 12 (6 cups' worth)
Author: Hangry Miss

Equipment

  • 2 baking sheets

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

  • 130 g rice malt syrup
  • 80 g unsalted butter
  • Teaspoon vanilla paste or extract

Dry Ingredients

  • 400 g rolled oats
  • 100 g sunflower seeds
  • 50 g sesame seeds
  • 50 g pumpkin seeds
  • 2 Tablespoons chia seeds
  • 65 g demerara sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

  • Preheat Oven – to 160°C.
  • Baking Sheets – line with a layer of baking paper. You can skip this step if the baking sheets are non-stick (but it does make it easier to transfer the granola into a jar after).
  • Wet Ingredients – weigh the syrup and butter directly into a microwave-safe bowl. Add the vanilla. Melt together in the microwave in short bursts until the butter is almost melted. It will continue to melt all the way while you get everything else organised. If you don’t have a microwave, you can do this in a small saucepan on the stovetop over medium heat.
    130 g rice malt syrup
    80 g unsalted butter
    Teaspoon vanilla
  • Dry Ingredients – weigh directly into a large bowl and stir to combine.
    400 g rolled oats
    100 g sunflower seeds
    50 g sesame seeds
    50 g pumpkin seeds
    2 Tablespoons chia seeds
    65 g demerara sugar
    ½ teaspoon salt
    teaspoon cinnamon
  • Combine Wet & Dry - pour the syrup mix over the oats. Fold everything together with a flexible spatula until it is glistening, and no dry bits remain.
  • Thin Layer – tip the granola out onto the baking sheet and press the mix out into an even layer.
  • Bake – for 15 minutes. The edges will brown more than the centre. Remove the tray from the oven. Redistribute the granola.. Bring the edges into the centre, then redistribute into a thin layer. Bake for another 5 minutes.
  • Cool & Store – remove the granola from the oven and leave to cool completely on the baking sheet. Transfer to a well-sealed container.

Notes

This granola stays fresh for about a week. After that, it will lose some of its crunch. Keep at room temperature (don't refrigerate)

💭 Other Breakfast Recipes

  • Three rolled-up crepes sprinkled with sugar on a blue plate. A pile of crepes on a plate in the background.
    🍋Lemon and Sugar Crepes
  • Shakshouka
  • A tall stack of buttermilk pancakes. There is some melted butter at the top and maple syrup drizzled all over.
    Buttermilk Pancakes
  • A stack of bronzed scones. The top one is cut in half to reveal a jammy centre.
    Jam-Bellied Bran Scones

More Sweet

  • Slices cut from a banana cake loaf and smothered in butter.
    🍌Banana Cake
  • Sugar-crusted blueberry muffins cooling on a rack.
    🫐Blueberry Muffins
  • Custard being poured over a whole steamed pudding.
    Syrup Steamed Pudding
  • Bundt tin-shaped glossy sticky date pudding on a white platter in a puddle of butterscotch sauce.
    Sticky Date (Toffee) Pudding

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me using a pasta machine with one of my sons.

Hello! I'm Lisa. I’m the recipe developer, cook, photographer, and author behind Hangry Miss. I am a genuinely angry/often hungry person, who finds it convenient to blame my Sicilian parents for both attributes.

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