This granola is flavored with maple, pecan, pumpkin, and plenty of fall spices. It is easy to whip up and there are so many uses for it once you make it. You could have it with milk like cereal or on top of yogurt. Or you can just eat it on its own!
So about a month ago, I was thinking about fall. I wanted a quick and simple recipe, that would still give you that amazing fall flavor. Then my mind jumped to granola. There are so many different uses for granola, and it isn’t very difficult to make. And there are so many ways you can flavor it. In the past when I was making granola from scratch, I didn’t get those good clumps that we all love to snack on. After extensive research, I found that this was because my granola wasn’t wet enough. This granola is just is wet and sticky before baking. This way, some of it will stay together in clumps. Major breakthrough!
What Makes a Good Granola?
To make this versatile fall treat, we start by tossing together oats, pecans, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. Then, we lightly brown some butter in a saucepan. I like to do this because it provides a warm nutty taste to the granola. Then we stir in the maple syrup, coconut oil, and pumpkin. To put it all together we pour this butter mixture into the oats and nuts. It will be a sticky and thick and you will probably be thinking, “how is this possibly going to be granola?”. It’s ok though! We need a thick sticky granola so that we get clumps of granola. When we bake it, the granola will dry out and get nice and crunchy and toasty.
What’s in This Granola?
So what do all of these ingredients do for the granola? Let’s start off with the dry ingredients. Oats are just there to give it volume. You can’t really have granola without oats! Then we have pecans which again add more volume, but also I think of pecans as a fall food, and they pair well with pumpkin. To add a little pizazz I add pumpkin seeds. This gives it more volume and flavor. As far as spices go, we use cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. A nice classic bunch. Now for the wet ingredients. We use melted butter, and I like to brown it a little bit just to give it a little extra warm fall flavor. Then we add the pumpkin and maple, two classic autumn flavors. Lastly we add coconut oil, but you can use another tablespoon of butter instead. I like coconut oil because it doesn’t change the taste but makes it a little healthier. Just a little bit though, this is not the healthiest granola you could make, but that’s what makes it so good!
Describe this Granola to Me
Flavor: This is the coziest fall granola you could hope for. You get a buttery flavor from the pecans, a warm spice flavor from the cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, and a rich sweetness from the maple. You also get some sweet nutty-ness from the pumpkin, and a toasty flavor from the town butter.
Texture: This granola is crunchy and chunky. We bake it on the convection setting so that the granola will dry out. You can do it on a normal baking setting, but I find that convection works the best. In order to get chunks of granola, we need very wet granola before we bake it.
Ease: This is a quick and easy recipe. The prep doesn’t take any longer than 10 minutes at most, and then all you have to do is wait while it bakes. And then bam! You have beautiful homemade granola.
Autumn Harvest Granola
Ingredients
- 3 cups oats
- 1 cup raw pecans roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds raw or roasted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup pumpkin purée
- 1 Tablespoon coconut oil (or another Tablespoon butter)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300℉ on the convection setting. (If your oven does not have this setting, then you can do it normally, your granola just might be less crunchy.) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, toss together the oats, pecans, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, heat the butter on medium heat until fully melted. Using a wooden spoon stir constantly as the butter browns. The butter will begin to foam and then develop brown specks. Once the butter has reached a golden brown color, remove from the heat and stir/whisk in the maple syrup, pumpkin purée, and coconut oil until completely combined and the coconut oil is fully melted.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the oat mixture. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, stir together for 3 minutes. This makes sure the spices are evenly distributed and everything is well coated. The granola will look wet, but it will dry out in the oven.
- Pour the granola onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until browned and dried out. Every 10 minutes, open the oven and use a spatula to flip the granola around. This ensures even browning and helps you break up the granola into chunks. The granola should feel a little bit soft, but be mostly dried out. It will continue to dry out as it cools.
- Once baked, allow to cool completely in the pan. Once cooled, you can use your hands or a wooden spatula to break up some clumps if you think they are too big.
- Granola stays fresh at room temperature for up to one week.