Every bit of this salty/sweet peanut butter granola is golden and sunny, from the oats to the nuts to the warm spices to the glowing golden raisins. It tastes like your favorite crunchy peanut butter granola bar, only better.
The sweet softness of the raisins contrasts with the crunchy peanut butter-coated oats for a PB&J-like effect. For even more play with textures, temperatures and flavors, add fresh fruit for sweet/tart/juicy, and a dollop of Greek yogurt for tart/cool/creamy.
I love dried fruit in my granola, but it needs to be protected from drying out further and getting hard. Never bake the fruit with the rest of the granola, and don’t stir it in to the cooked granola unless you plan to eat it right away. Store the cooled granola and the raisins separately, and sprinkle the raisins on right before serving.
I’ve chosen the ingredients for this peanut butter granola to complement the peanut butter flavor and create this pretty golden color palette. But granola is one of the easiest recipes to adapt to your liking – you can swap out the raisins for other dried fruit, switch out the nuts for other varieties, change up the sweetener or the spices. (Try this Maple Nut version.) The formula and the process stay the same: toss the oats and raw nuts with the spices first, then the wet ingredients. After baking, stir in any nuts that are already roasted and salted (like the cocktail peanuts I used here), and save the fruit to add in later.
Making this ahead and what to do with leftovers:
- This peanut butter granola is the perfect make-ahead breakfast. Make sure it’s completely cool, then transfer it to an airtight container, and it will keep for weeks in the pantry.
Golden Granola
Tip: If you’re using coconut oil for the fat in this recipe, use the apple juice and the displacement method to measure it. Pour ½ cup of apple juice into a one-cup liquid measuring cup. Spoon in the coconut oil, pushing it down to submerge it, until the liquid level rises to ¾ cup. Remove the coconut oil and reserve it, then transfer the apple juice to the saucepan to reduce it (Step 2).
Ingredients
- ½ cup apple juice or apple cider
- ¼ cup extra virgin coconut oil, or neutral oil such as expeller-pressed canola oil
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup smooth peanut butter
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats (not instant)
- ½ coarsely chopped raw almonds
- ¼ cup wheat bran
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon ground clove
- ¾ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, or 3/8 teaspoon Morton’s
- ½ cup coarsely chopped roasted salted peanuts (cocktail peanuts)
- 1 cup golden raisins
Directions
- Step 1 Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Step 2 Pour the apple juice or cider into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over high heat. Boil until the liquid is reduced to ¼ cup.
- Step 3 Add the coconut oil (or other neutral oil), honey and peanut butter to the reduced apple juice, reduce the heat to low, and heat until the coconut oil and peanut butter melt and the mixture is smooth.
- Step 4 Combine the oats, almonds, bran, spices and salt in a large bowl. Pour in the peanut butter mixture and toss until the oats are evenly coated. Spread the mixture out on the prepared baking sheet.
- Step 5 Bake 20 minutes. Stir the granola, making sure to bring all the browned pieces from the edges into the center and push the center pieces out. Bake for 15 to 20 additional minutes, stirring and rearranging every 5 minutes, until the granola is evenly golden brown but not dark. (Watch carefully because this granola is especially prone to burning.) Remove the pan to a rack to cool completely.
- Step 6 Stir in the peanuts. If serving right away, stir in the golden raisins. Otherwise, store the granola and the raisins separately and add a small handful of raisins to each serving as you go.
