Enjoy the warm spices of the season in this gingerbread granola. Filled with nuts, oats, molasses, and maple syrup, it's perfectly spiced and great for breakfast or to snack on.
You'll love celebrating the holiday season with this wonderfully spiced gingerbread granola recipe.
I'm always looking for new flavors to incorporate into my granola recipe. Homemade granola is one of those incredibly delicious snacks that make it easy to mix in all kinds of different flavors and ingredients.
Why This Recipe Works
- Tested and perfected recipe: With this gingerbread granola recipe, I've taken the ingredients found in my traditional granola and added the warm, spiced flavors of the holiday season.
- Incredibly delicious: This granola is crisp and crunchy, subtly spiced, and completely addicting.
- Homemade granola is best: You just can’t beat the taste of made-from-scratch granola. Packaged granola is often loaded with unhealthy ingredients to extend the shelf life. Homemade granola is granola in its purest form. Simple ingredients which deliver amazing flavors.
- Less expensive than buying granola: While having a stash of store-bought granola in your pantry may be more convenient, it's often pricey for what's in the bag. Homemade granola is much cheaper than store-bought.
- Perfect for gift-giving: A small jar of homemade gingerbread granola makes a wonderful gift.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Oats: Use old-fashioned rolled oats. If you’d like to make gluten-free granola, be sure to use gluten-free oats. I do not recommend using quick oats.
- Coconut: Use unsweetened shredded coconut.
- Walnuts or pecans: These nuts are delicious in this gingerbread granola recipe but feel free to use nuts you love, just use the same amounts as called for in this recipe. Consider using chopped cashews or chopped almonds instead.
- Brown sugar: Use light or dark brown sugar. If you don't have brown sugar in your pantry, make your own with our easy brown sugar recipe.
- Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cloves: These spices are found in gingerbread recipes and make this granola so incredibly delicious.
- Butter: Salted butter is what I use, you can use coconut oil instead.
- Maple syrup: You can use honey, agave, or brown rice syrup instead of maple syrup.
- Molasses: Essential for gingerbread. We recommend using 2 tablespoons.
- Salt and vanilla extract: Adds flavor.
See below for ways to use leftover ingredients.
How To Make Gingerbread Granola
See the recipe box below for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions.
- Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
- In a large bowl, combine the oats, coconut, walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cloves.
- In a small pot on medium heat, melt butter and stir in maple syrup, molasses, and salt. Cook, stirring frequently until the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
- Pour the butter/molasses mixture over the oats and nuts and stir until well mixed.
- Pour onto a large rimmed sheet pan lined with either parchment paper or a silicone baking liner and spread the unbaked granola across the entire pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
Pro Tip: You will need to bake the granola for a total of 30 minutes, removing the pan from the oven to stir the granola every 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and stir the granola to encourage even toasting. Place the baking sheet back in the oven to bake for another 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and stir the granola one last time. Bake for another 10 minutes for a total of 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, cool, and then transfer the granola to a container to store.
The flavors in this gingerbread granola are fantastic. The spices are subtle and the granola is crunchy and filled with flavor. I can't resist eating it right off the baking sheet - it's just so good!
Expert Tips
- Gingerbread granola makes a lovely holiday, hostess, or teacher gift. Pour the granola into little mason jars and decorate with a festive ribbon for a no-fuss gift.
- Make granola clusters: If you like big clusters of nuts and oats press the oats mixture into little 1-inch ovals for the first 10 minutes of baking.
- Cool the granola: Be sure to let the granola cool before eating or transferring it into a jar. As the granola cools, the crispier it gets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Completely cool the granola on the baking tray before transferring it to a container. Granola will keep well for up to a week when stored at room temperature in an airtight container.
Although I don't recommend using quick oats in granola recipes, you can use them. The cook time will be much less and the granola will not have as much texture as it would if you use rolled oats.
Making your own homemade granola is definitely cheaper than store-bought granola.
Yes. If you'd like to make a large batch of gingerbread granola, double the ingredient amounts in this recipe.
Ways To Use Leftover Ingredients
If you have any ingredients leftover from this small batch gingerbread granola recipe, you might like to consider using them in any of these single serving and small batch recipes:
- Oats: Blueberry Crumble, Lace Cookies, Baked Oatmeal, Pineapple Oat Cake
Coconut: Cowboy Cookies, Coconut Macaroons, Coconut Cream Pie, Mocha Oatmeal Bowl - Nuts: Apple Muffin, Pecan Pie, Chicken Salad, Brownies
- Maple syrup: Maple Walnut Muffin, Breakfast Bread Pudding, Baked Salmon, Apple Cinnamon Scones
- Molasses: Sloppy Joe, Soft Ginger Cookies, Gingerbread, Mini Meatloaf, Baked Beans
- Vanilla: Panna Cotta, Mini Spice Cake, Banana Cream Pie, Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Serving Suggestions
While this gingerbread granola is delicious eaten as is, you might like to enjoy it in other ways too:
- With milk: Serve granola with milk and sliced fruit.
- With yogurt: This makes a wonderful breakfast or snack.
- With ice cream: Granola makes a delicious ice cream topping.
More Small Batch Granola Recipes
RELATED: 20 Breakfast Ideas Worth Waking Up To
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If you’ve tried this gingerbread granola or any recipe on One Dish Kitchen please let me know how you liked it by rating the recipe and telling me about it in the comment section below.
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Small Batch Gingerbread Granola
See the post above for expert tips,
FAQs and ways to use leftover ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
- 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
- ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
- In a large bowl, combine the oats, coconut, walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cloves.
- In a small pot on medium heat, melt butter and stir in maple syrup, molasses, and salt. Cook, stirring frequently until the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
- Pour the butter/molasses mixture over the oats and nuts and stir until well mixed.
- Pour onto a large rimmed sheet pan lined with either parchment paper or a silicone baking liner and spread the unbaked granola across the entire pan. Bake for 10 minutes.Pro Tip: You will need to bake the granola for a total of 30 minutes, removing the pan from the oven to stir the granola every 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and stir the granola to encourage even toasting. Place the baking sheet back in the oven to bake for another 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and stir the granola one last time. Bake for another 10 minutes for a total of 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, cool, and then transfer the granola to a container to store.
Notes
- Gingerbread granola makes a lovely holiday, hostess, or teacher gift. Pour the granola into little mason jars and decorate with a festive ribbon for a no-fuss gift.
- Make granola clusters: If you like big clusters of nuts and oats press the oats mixture into little 1-inch ovals for the first 10 minutes of baking.
- Cool the granola: Be sure to let the granola cool before eating or transferring it into a jar. As the granola cools, the crispier it gets.
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
J. Hegyi says
Good recipe.
kittie says
Any idea if adding some craisins would be an issue and if not at point would I add them
Joanie Zisk says
That would be fine. If you're adding dried fruit to your granola, add it at the end. You don't want to run the risk of burning your dried fruit in the oven. Stir it in after the granola cools.
Elizabeth Jackson says
I do have one question. I baked my granola at 300 according to specified temp in recipe. It came out darker than the recipe picture. Also slightly grainy. It tasted great and I love it just wondering about it's appearance and what I may need to change????
Joanie Zisk says
Hi Elizabeth, it could be that your oven may be running hotter than it should be. You can test the true temperature of your oven by placing an oven thermometer inside the oven and heating the oven to 350 F. See if the thermometer registers the same temperature as the oven. It's also very important to stir the granola from time to time to help it brown evenly. I'm not sure why your granola was grainy, it could also go back to stirring the granola every 10 minutes.
Karen says
This recipe sounds amazing, I can't wait to make it!
One quick question for you....do you use salted butter or unsalted butter in your granola recipes?
Joanie Zisk says
I use salted butter, Karen. I hope you enjoy the granola!
Joanie
Lisa A Langston says
Hey! I just came across your blog and love it! I love small batch recipes since there are only two of us! What can I use to substitute the maple syrup in this recipe? I am not a fan of maple syrup. Thank you!!
Joanie Zisk says
Hi Lisa,
Honey or agave would be a good substitute.
Angie says
This mixed into some greek yogurt was fantastic! Perfect holiday flavor too!
Katerina says
Oh my goodness!! This is absolutely incredible!!! LOVE it!!