Master Gluten Free Granola Recipe | Easy, Customizable, Delicious

5 from 3 votes

Prep Time : 10 minutes

Cook Time : 35 minutes

This is the master recipe for gluten free granola that you’ve been looking for! Endlessly customizable, with the perfect crispy granola clusters everyone loves.

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This is the master recipe for gluten free granola that you’ve been looking for! Endlessly customizable, with the perfect crispy granola clusters everyone loves.

It’s made with plenty of good olive oil, raw nuts and seeds, coconut chips, maple syrup and certified gluten free oats—or with many potential substitutions to suit any diet!

Tips for making the absolute best gluten free granola

The best granola is always crisp when you bite into it, can be served alone, as a topping for yogurt, or even as cereal with milk. If you’re lucky enough to smell it baking, you’ll never forget it.

There’s a reason artisan-style granolas are sold at almost every farmer’s market. It’s as beautiful and delicious as a warm loaf of homebaked bread!

There are now quite a few packaged gluten free granolas that you can buy. But they’re ridiculously expensive for a small bag—and I bet they have one or two ingredients you just don’t like!

It’s time you had a master gluten free granola recipe that you can make with everything you love, and nothing you don’t. With my tips and tricks, and substitution suggestions, this is that recipe.

Always bake granola low and slow

Homemade granola is best made in a low, low (300°F) oven in 10 minute intervals, stirring in between, until it’s golden brown and caramelized. That way, it will never ever burn. 

Your granola is done baking when you say it is! I like to let mine bake until it becomes really fragrant, which signals that the nuts, seeds, oats, and coconut have browned.

Don’t skip steps when you’re making granola

You might be tempted to bake the granola for 20 or 30 minutes at a time, rather than in 10 minute intervals. Resist the temptation!

Ask me how I know that skipping the intervals leads to granola that’s nearly burned on the underside and pale and lifeless on top…

If you don’t stop the baking and stir the granola fully, the sugars melt to the bottom. You want to redistribute all that flavor to every beautiful, delicious cluster.

After the granola is done baking, let it cool (for clusters!)

Your granola is done baking, and you’ve mixed in your choice of dried fruit. It’s ready to eat, right?

Not just yet! You want to let the granola cool right there in the pan. The sugars solidify and the granola clumps in the most lovely way.

Once it’s cool to the touch, you’ll break it up into irregular clumps. This is the step that separates okay granola from the best gluten free granola!

As with anything you’ve baked until crisp, and you’d like to keep that way: store it in a glass container with a tight-fitting lid. A plastic container or one without a lid will absorb moisture and lose crispness.

Is granola wheat free? Is it gluten free?

Yes! Made in the classic style as this recipe is, with sugars, rolled oats, nuts, seeds, and coconut, there is no wheat in granola at all.

Granola is naturally gluten free, as long as you source your ingredients carefully, especially the oats.

Gluten free granola ingredients and how to substitute them

Can you make gluten free granola without oats?

Yes, you can make granola without oats. If you can find buckwheat flakes, you can try replacing the oats with that.

Traditional gluten free granola is made with certified gluten free oats. I buy “purity protocol” gluten free oats at my local Trader Joe’s.

If you’re avoiding oats for any reason, there are ways to substitute most forms of oats in gluten free baking. Here, you’d likely use beaten rice in place of oats, since it holds its shape very well.

Can you make grain free granola?

Oats may be gluten free when sourced properly, but they are a grain. If you’d like to make grain-free granola, you’ll love our recipe for Paleo granola, which is entirely grain-free.

What are coconut chips—and how to make gluten free granola without coconut

This recipe calls for coconut chips, not shredded coconut. Coconut chips are wide, flat crunchy coconut flakes that will make a believer out of even the most dedicated coconut hater.

These coconut chips are so nice, especially toasted. If you’re dead set against coconut, then replace with more raw nuts and seeds, whatever kind you like.

What do sugars do in gluten free granola?

Sugars do so much more in this granola recipe than sweeten the oats, nuts, seeds, and coconut!

The three types of sugars (brown sugar, maple syrup, and Lyle’s Golden syrup or honey) help coat everything in a thin, crackly browned layer. And without sugar, there are no granola clusters.

I don’t think you could use sugar alternatives to make granola. I doubt they’d caramelize in the oven and create clusters.

And everybody knows the clusters are the best part of granola.

Lyle’s Golden Syrup

Lyle’s golden syrup is a much more neutral syrup than honey, and is similar in consistency. You can replace Lyle’s with honey or agave nectar.

You could even use light or dark corn syrup in its place, but most people prefer to avoid those sugars (even though they’re not the same as high fructose corn syrup, I promise!).

Pure maple syrup

Pure maple syrup is ideal, since it has that rich, deep flavor everyone loves. It’s also thin enough to easily coat all the tasty morsels.

Maple syrup is expensive, though. You can replace it, too, with agave nectar, which should be much cheaper.

Light brown sugar

If you’d prefer to make this granola without any refined sugars, try using coconut palm sugar. Coconut palm sugar has similar depth of flavor to the molasses in brown sugar.

It’s a coarse, granulated sugar, so grind it in a blender a bit first, or it won’t dissolve completely in the oven.

What kinds of fat are best in granola?

You can use nearly any fat to make this recipe, but I like extra virgin olive oil best. It’s flavorful in a complementary way.

You can also use a neutral oil that’s liquid at room temperature, like grapeseed oil, or even canola or vegetable oil. You can also use unrefined coconut oil, which is solid at cool room temperature, if you melt it first.

If your oil isn’t properly liquified when you add it to the other ingredients, it will clump. You’ll have oily parts, and parts that are dry.

What kind of nuts are in this granola recipe—and can you make gluten free granola without nuts?

Granola should always be crunchy. So I usually make it with whole raw almonds that I chop roughly.

Raw nuts that are solid like almonds bake slowly in the oven with all the other granola ingredients. They get coated with sugar, and come out crisp, but never hard.

Softer raw nuts, like walnuts, pecans, or cashews can also be used in place of almonds. Watch them carefully in the oven, though, as they burn rather easily.

If you’d like to make gluten free nut-free granola, try replacing the almonds with more seeds (sunflower seeds are a good choice). You’ll want some more bulk, so try adding more coconut chips.

Do you have to use seeds in this granola recipe?

No! You don’t have to use seeds. But I hope you’ll consider it, especially if you’re avoiding nuts.

Any sort of seeds will do. I usually use a combination of hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds.

Seeds add crunch and visual interest—without adding any overpowering flavor. They taste a bit “nutty,” but they’re not nuts.

Master gluten free granola recipe, step by step

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Master Gluten Free Granola Recipe | Easy, Customizable, Delicious

This is the master recipe for gluten free granola that you’ve been looking for! Endlessly customizable, with the perfect crispy granola clusters everyone loves.

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Servings: 8 cups

Author: Nicole Hunn

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups (140 g) raw almonds , roughly chopped
• 1 cup (112 g) raw seeds (like pumpkin, hemp, chia)
• 1 cup (80 g) unsweetened raw coconut chips
• 3 cups (300 g) certified gluten free old fashioned rolled oats
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup (109 g) packed light brown sugar
• ¼ cup (84 g) Lyle’s Golden Syrup (honey, or Agave nectar work, too)
• ½ cup (168 g) pure maple syrup
• ½ cup (112 g) extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ½ cups dried fruit raisins, dried blueberries, chopped dried apricots, etc.

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 300°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper, and set it aside. You can use a nonstick half sheet baking sheet.
• In a large bowl, place chopped almonds, seeds, coconut chips, oats, salt and light brown sugar and mix to combine (working out any lumps in the brown sugar).
• Add the Lyle’s golden syrup (or honey or Agave), maple syrup and olive oil, and mix to combine well, coating all the dry ingredients with the wet.
• Scrape the granola onto the prepared baking sheet, and spread into a single layer, but a bit thinner toward the center as the center bakes last.
• Place in the center of the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, stir with a large mixing spoon until everything is rearranged.
• Spread back into an even layer. Return the granola to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the oven and stir once more. Spread again into an even layer.
• Return the baking sheet to the oven once again and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven.
• If the granola looks golden brown all over, and is strongly fragrant, it should be done baking. You can always stir it once more and bake for another 5 minutes if you like.
• Remove the pan from the oven. While the granola is still on the baking sheet, add the dried fruit, and stir to distribute the fruit evenly throughout the granola.
• Allow the granola to cool on the sheet pan for at least 10 minutes before breaking it into chunks and smaller pieces.
• Transfer the granola to a glass container with a lid. That will keep it crunchy until you are ready to serve it. Store at room temperature.

Notes

Originally published on the blog in 2012. Updated in 2016, and again in 2021.

Print Pin SaveSaved!

Master Gluten Free Granola Recipe | Easy, Customizable, Delicious

This is the master recipe for gluten free granola that you’ve been looking for! Endlessly customizable, with the perfect crispy granola clusters everyone loves.

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Servings: 8 cups

Author: Nicole Hunn

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups (140 g) raw almonds , roughly chopped
• 1 cup (112 g) raw seeds (like pumpkin, hemp, chia)
• 1 cup (80 g) unsweetened raw coconut chips
• 3 cups (300 g) certified gluten free old fashioned rolled oats
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup (109 g) packed light brown sugar
• ¼ cup (84 g) Lyle’s Golden Syrup (honey, or Agave nectar work, too)
• ½ cup (168 g) pure maple syrup
• ½ cup (112 g) extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ½ cups dried fruit raisins, dried blueberries, chopped dried apricots, etc.

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 300°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper, and set it aside. You can use a nonstick half sheet baking sheet.
• In a large bowl, place chopped almonds, seeds, coconut chips, oats, salt and light brown sugar and mix to combine (working out any lumps in the brown sugar).
• Add the Lyle’s golden syrup (or honey or Agave), maple syrup and olive oil, and mix to combine well, coating all the dry ingredients with the wet.
• Scrape the granola onto the prepared baking sheet, and spread into a single layer, but a bit thinner toward the center as the center bakes last.
• Place in the center of the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, stir with a large mixing spoon until everything is rearranged.
• Spread back into an even layer. Return the granola to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the oven and stir once more. Spread again into an even layer.
• Return the baking sheet to the oven once again and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven.
• If the granola looks golden brown all over, and is strongly fragrant, it should be done baking. You can always stir it once more and bake for another 5 minutes if you like.
• Remove the pan from the oven. While the granola is still on the baking sheet, add the dried fruit, and stir to distribute the fruit evenly throughout the granola.
• Allow the granola to cool on the sheet pan for at least 10 minutes before breaking it into chunks and smaller pieces.
• Transfer the granola to a glass container with a lid. That will keep it crunchy until you are ready to serve it. Store at room temperature.

Notes

Originally published on the blog in 2012. Updated in 2016, and again in 2021.