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Yes! You can totally make granola with steel-cut oats! This Honey Nut Steel-Cut Granola is packed full of flavor and healthy nuts and will make you forget all about rolled oats in your granola!
Growing up we only ever ate steel-cut oats. It wasn’t until I got really into healthy living blogs that I discovered that most people didn’t eat steel-cut oats. I honestly believed that rolled oats were called “quaker oats” since I only ever saw them come from those horrible quaker oat packets.
Feel free to judge.
But suddenly I found myself buying enormous bags of Trader Joe’s Rolled Oats, making overnight oatmeal and completely neglecting my beloved steel-cut oats. Truth is, once you discover the convenience of rolled oats (aka ready in under 10 mins!) it’s difficult to justify spending 30 minutes cooking steel-cut.
But I really do miss the crunchiness of steel-cut oats. Though to be fair, I think that I mostly miss how my mom used to make it with milk and brown sugar…so good.
Speaking of moms, have I mentioned that mine is wonderful? Mom, I can already feel you typing your response to this…
Allow me to explain.
Not only is she responsible for introducing me to steel-cut oats, but also for that delicious manuka honey you see in the background of those photos. She brought it back for me after her recent trip to New Zealand (where manuka-pollinating bees live) and I’ve basically been rationing it out every single day since.
This stuff is like gold. If you’ve never tried manuka honey, start saving your pennies and then invest in a little jar of this magic. The best way for me to describe it is like “the most honey-filled honey you have ever tasted”. Does this make sense?
Confession: I totally didn’t use the manuka honey in this Honey Nut Steel-Cut Granola. It is far too precious for that. But I DID top the granola with a bit of manuka honey for an added sweet and antioxidant-filled boost!
Apparently manuka honey has all sorts of health-benefits and its encouraged you have a spoonful a day. An excuse to eat a spoonful of honey everyday? Thanks Mom!
PrintHoney Nut Steel-Cut Granola
Yes! You can totally make granola with steel-cut oats! This Honey Nut Steel-Cut Granola is packed full of flavor and healthy nuts and will make you forget all about rolled oats in your granola!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Bake
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 3 cups steel-cut oats (gluten-free if necessary)
- 2 cups of mixed nuts (I did 1/2 cup of hazelnuts, pecans, slivered almonds and walnuts but feel free to use any kind of nuts)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup honey (local raw honey is ideal)
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
- In a large bowl combine steel-cut oats, nuts, cinnamon and sea salt.
- In a separate bowl combine coconut oil, applesauce, honey and vanilla.
- Stir wet ingredients into dry and mix until combined.
- Spread granola over a parchment or silicone-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 20 mins.
- Remove from oven and flip and the bake for another 20 mins.
- Remove from oven once again, flip and then bake for another 15 mins.
- Remove from oven and flatten granola with the back of a spatula.
- LET SIT FOR ONE HOUR. Do not try to move granola off tray.
- After an hour, you can take the granola and break it up into clusters.
- Combine with raisins.
- Keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks (if it ever lasts that long…)
Made this with Quaker Steel Cut Oats, pecans, & accidentally doubled the applesauce. Delicious! The husband actually prefers it alone, I prefer with vanilla yogurt. I used up the oats he tried once & didn’t like, plus some local gallberry honey that has a bitter taste. We do have sensitive teeth and disagree with the “kitty litter” comment. Maybe the extra applesauce helped. Only other thing I did differently was I let it sit about 2 hours in pan with another pan inverted on top of it while I went to an appointment.
Thank for your recipe, you give me a clear solution and i will try if it works.
I’ve got this in the oven right now…How exactly do you ‘flip’ it? Stir or rotate the cookie sheet or literally flip the entire mixture over onto the paper?!
I’m trying to use ingredients that I on hand…is there a substitute for the applesauce? Thanks so much!
Banana or pumpkin will do the trick!
Did you know there is more than one kind of manuka honey? There is another for wound healing, not the kind you ingest. Going to gather my ingredients now to make the granola and going to use manuka honey mixed with regular. This recipe looks great.
Made this twice this week – AMAZING!!! Love it!! Reminds me of ‘Kind Bars’. How exactly do you go about ‘flipping’ it – each time I tried to flip it, several pieces slid out onto the counter. I’d really appreciate some tips!!
The week after I made this granola, I ate it with Greek yogurt every single morning. It was super delicious and made my house smell AMAZING while it baked. I’m making it again right now! I’m out of raisins, so I’m using Craisins instead and I’m sure it will be just as great! Thanks so much for the awesome recipe!
So happy you enjoyed 🙂
When you say flip do you mean rotate cookie sheet or mix granola. Going to try steel cut oats and whole oats. Excited to try.
Thank you
When you say flip do you mean mix or turn the cookie sheet around? I’m going to mix steel cut oats and regular oats
Can’t wait to try.
the recipe does not state the type of steel cut oats I use the quick cook ones
I would think the regular would take forever to cook
Either is fine!