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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…)
Excellent recipe – loved the crunch! Came out perfect.
You probably already know this but Coache’s steel cut oats cook in microwave at power 40% 4:30 min. Far faster than rolled oats for 10 min and at less than 50% power.
Anyone figure out how to “flip” it? Never saw a response!
Thanks for the recipe! I had these Japanese rolled oats which weren’t quite ‘rolled’ enough for oatmeal cookies but were perfect for these!
Mine came out slightly sticky but easily breakable so they were crumbly once I’d broken them up. Perfect for me though as I like them over chopped apples and yoghurt (like a healthy breakfast apple crumble!) Tastes awesome and nice and crunchy!
How many total servings does this make? Assuming about 2 tbsp/serving?
I am making this now, thanks for the recipe! Do you need to refrigerate it since it has apple sauce? Thanks!
Can you omit the nuts? If so do I need to adjusts amounts of oil, honey and applesauce?
Is this supposed to be super crumbly? I followed your directions to a T but it is completely crumbly… I also let it cool a bit longer than an hour just to be safe, but it’s not at all granola-esque… But at least the flavor is great!
I just made it and mine is crumbly also and didn’t form clusters. It sure is delicious though!!!
I made this granola and it is amazing!!! It makes many servings for my husband and I to enjoy it throughout the week/on to the next week! We love it as a topping of Greek yogurt or simply with some almond milk. Top it with a banana and some blackberry sauce (just mashed up blackberries in a saucepan) and it is the bomb! Thanks for the recipe. I didn’t have vanilla and it tasted delicious even without it! I also used dates instead of raisins and only 1/4 cup of honey (since that’s all I had). So good and stuck together well! Will be making this again and again!
Also will be posting this recipe on the blog this week!!
I always make granola with rolled oats but we have a ton of steel-cut that need to be used before we moved. Thus, I found this recipe. We like it; thank you! I think I will prefer the texture with rolled oats, but this is a good way to use the steel-cut. Per the comment re: “kitty litter,” I would say no. It reminds me of the texture of that cereal Grape Nuts (do they still make that?). Definitely crunchier than with rolled oats but not too hard.