Almond Butter Granola

Homemade almond butter granola is a simple recipe with crunchy clusters that are full of nutritious ingredients. It’s egg-free, dairy-free, and can also be gluten-free. 

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If you're like me, store bought granola can be overly sweet! Because this recipe is naturally sweetened with maple syrup, it’s not as sickly sweet as some granolas that you'll find on grocery store shelves. 

How to make almond butter granola

Gather whatever nuts and seeds you have on hand and roughly chop any that are larger than you want in the finished granola. Add them to a large bowl with some rolled oats. You can also use quick oats, if that’s what you have. 

In a smaller bowl, mix together ground flax and water. Let that sit for a couple minutes to thicken before adding in almond butter, maple syrup, and the spices.

Once your wet ingredients are mixed up and smooth, pour them into the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour that mixture out onto a parchment lined baking tray and press it down—this will help create nice clusters rather than a loose granola. Bake it at 350°F for 15 minutes, then remove the tray from the oven and break up the granola into clusters. I like to make these clusters larger, because you can always break it up more later. Place the broken up granola back into the oven for 5-10 minutes. Check on it frequently to make sure it’s browning, but not burning. 

When the baking is complete, let the granola cool before enjoying or storing in a container for later. 

How do you store the homemade granola?

Store your granola in a sealed container at room temperature for a couple weeks. I would not recommend storing in the fridge. 

What to do if it’s not crunchy

All ovens and ingredients are a bit different, so if your granola isn’t crispy once it has cooled, have no fear, it can still be salvaged. Just warm up the oven and pop in the granola again. Keep a careful eye on it, because you don’t want it to burn! 

Possible Ingredient Substitutions

Almond butter - You should be able to substitute most other natural nut or seed butters where the only ingredient is the nut/seed and maybe some salt. Of course this will change the granola’s taste, but it should be texturally pretty similar. 

Maple syrup - Agave or another syrup sweetener with a similar consistency will probably work, however, I haven’t tested it out. It may change the sweetness level of the granola. If you do try out a substitution, let me know in the comments how it goes! 

Nuts/Seeds - Use whatever you have on hand or whatever you like! I like to use it as a way of getting lots of different nuts/seeds in my diet. Plus, I seem to always have random bags with a little bit left in them. For the granola pictured I used sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, pecans, shredded coconut and sesame seeds. 

How to use it

It’s a great recipe to add to your weekly meal prep for a tasty and fast breakfast or snack throughout the week. I like to have it on top of smoothie bowls, with yogurt and berries, or just by the handful when I’m feeling peckish. 

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Almond Butter Granola

Homemade almond butter granola is an easy recipe for a delicious breakfast, with crunchy clusters that are nutrient packed.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword baking, gluten-free, granola

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 3 cups

Author Plantily

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup of nuts or seeds*
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

Wet Ingredients

• 3 tablespoon ground flaxseed
• 2 tablespoon warm water
• ⅓ cup maple syrup
• ⅓ cup natural almond butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom optional

Instructions

1. Set the oven to 350°F.

2. Roughly chop up any large nuts or seeds before adding them into a large bowl with the oats and salt.

3. In a smaller separate bowl mix the ground flax and water. Let that sit for a minute or two before adding in the rest of the wet ingredients. Mix them all together until smooth.

4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix everything well before pressing it out on a parchment lined baking sheet. Press it well to create bigger granola clusters, but make sure the pressed granola isn’t too thin at the edges of the pan or it may burn. It can be helpful to make the pressed granola a little thicker at the edges.

5. Place the baking tray in an oven heated to 350°F for 15 minutes. Once the 15 minutes are up, remove the tray and start to break up the granola into chunks, mixing it around on the tray. Once broken up, place the tray back in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Keep an eye on it—the granola should be browning, but not burning.
6. Remove the tray from the oven and let the granola cool. It should be crunchy when cooled.
7. Store in a sealed container at room temperature for up to a couple weeks.

Recipe Notes

*You can use whatever mixture of nuts or seeds that you like/have on hand. I like to mix lots of different ones together. But if you want to make it extra almond-y you could stick to just almonds.

If you make almond butter granola, be sure to tag me on Instagram. I’d love to see!

Want to try making this recipe with sunflower butter? Check out this recipe for homemade sunflower seed butter!