When I want to change up my morning oats routine, I like to make a batch of homemade granola. Instead of a warm bowl in the morning, I eat the crunchy granola atop a bowl of cool yogurt, or with cold milk poured over top. This time I made a warm and spicy Gingersnap Granola. The molasses gives this granola a nice deep flavor without being too sweet, and the warm spices are just strong enough to give a hint of “gingersnap” without being over powering.
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What’s In it?
Inexpensive oats make up the bulk of granola, then I add a few other ingredients for texture like oat bran, almonds, and raisins. The dry mixture is seasoned with some warm spices like ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, plus a pinch of salt to help magnify the flavors. A syrupy mixture of brown sugar, molasses, and oil helps the granola bake up to a nice crispy texture that will hold up to cold milk or yogurt.
Visit the Bulk Bins for Ingredients
I like to buy ingredients for homemade granola from the bulk bins at grocery stores so I can buy only the amount I need of things like almonds, oat bran, or golden raisins. This eliminates the need to find uses for the leftover ingredients and it’s usually a lot less packaging!
How to Eat Homemade Gingersnap Granola
I ate my Gingersnap Granola over a bowl of yogurt and with some fresh pineapple (on sale, yay!) and I must say, pineapple + ginger = awesome! Sometimes I like to eat granola like store bought cereal–in a bowl with milk poured over top. And it also makes an excellent on-the-go snack. Just pack a little in a zip top baggie and munch a couple handfuls whenever your stomach starts growling!
Try These Other Homemade Granola Recipes:
- Homemade Granola
- Super Crunchy Oil Free Granola
- No Sugar Added Banana Nut Granola
- Pumpkin Spice Granola
Gingersnap Granola
Servings 16 (1/2 cup each)Ingredients
- 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats ($1.04)
- 1 cup oat bran ($0.76)
- 1 cup sliced almonds ($1.62)
- 1/4 cup molasses (not black strap) ($0.63)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar ( $0.11)
- 1/4 cup canola oil ($0.08)
- 1/4 cup water ($0.00)
- 2 tsp powdered ginger* ($0.20)
- 1 tsp cinnamon ($0.10)
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp salt ($0.01)
- 1/2 cup raisins ($0.59)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, stir together the oats, oat bran, and almonds until evenly combined.
- In a small sauce pot, combine the molasses, brown sugar, oil, water, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Heat and stir over a low flame until the brown sugar has dissolved and the mixture is liquid.
- Pour the molasses mixture over the bowl of dry oats and mix well until all of the oats, nuts, and oat bran are well coated.
- Pour the wet granola mixture onto the baking sheet and spread it out into a single layer. Bake the granola for 20 minutes, then give it a good stir. Bake for another 10-20 minutes, or until light golden brown (the total time will depend on the size of the baking sheet and how thick the granola is layered).
- Remove the granola from the oven and stir in the raisins. Press the granola down into a compact layer and allow to cool. Once cool, break it up and store in an air-tight container.
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Equipment
- Baking Sheet
- Parchment Paper
- Measuring Cups Spoons
- Glass Mixing Bowls
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Gingersnap Granola – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 300ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment. In a large bowl, stir together 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (they have more texture than quick oats), 1 cup sliced almonds, and 1 cup oat bran. Stir until they’re all well mixed.
In a small sauce pot, combine 1/4 cup molasses (not “black strap” molasses), 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup canola oil, 1/4 cup water, 2 tsp powdered ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, and 1/8 tsp salt. Heat over a low flame and stir until the brown sugar is dissolved. If you want EXTRA gingery flavor, you can grate some fresh ginger in there, too. YUM!
Pour the molten molasses mixture into the bowl with the oats, nuts, and oat bran.
Stir really, really well so that all the oats, nuts, and bran are coated in the molasses mixture.
Spread the wet Gingersnap Granola mixture out over the prepared baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, then stir. Bake for an additional 10-20 minutes, or until it’s lightly golden brown and smells slightly toasty.
Like this! The total baking time will depend on how big your baking sheet is and how thick the layer of wet granola is. Once it’s finished baking, stir in 1/2 cup golden raisins. Press the granola down into a compact layer and let it cool (pressing it down before it’s cooled helps it clump up). Once cool, store it in an air-tight container.
I ate my Gingersnap Granola with homemade yogurt and some fresh pineapple. Delish!
We made this today, October 24, 2022 for the first time. We followed directions on amounts (except clove) and time to bake. We were excited as the kitchen became infused with ginger, cinnamon and all spice. Never send your son to buy spices because he thought I could use all spice for any missing spices. He is an excellent grocery buyer but doesn’t feel confident on specific ingredients. I should never complain because he is very willing to try any of the things I make. We tagged team on cooking this recipe. We thought the mixture after the last time in the oven cooking was dry but keeping faith it will cool down perfectly.
I’m so excited to try this!! How long can it keep on the shelf (in an airtight container)? Does it need to be refrigerated?
It does not need to be refrigerated and there’s no exact lifespan. That often depends on several variables. It will just go stale over time, like any cereal. :)
Is there a reason why black strap is not preferred? I just made it with it and I think it turned out fine.
It just has a totally different flavor and the recipe was formulated for non-black-strap. Not that it would necessarily be bad with it, but I couldn’t vouch for it because that’s not what I used. I think someone had complained that it wasn’t specified or something, and they made it with black strap and didn’t like it, so I made sure to include that note for everyone else trying the recipe. :P
I switched a few things up to make this oil-free using aquafaba, per the “super-crunchy oil-free granola” recipe. I omitted the water and oil, and heated the molasses and brown sugar together. I stirred those into 1/2 cup of whipped aquafaba, and added the spices then as well. That was enough to coat the dry mixture (swapped for pecans and candied ginger instead of fruit). It ended up baking for a full 30 minutes (with stirring in between) to get the texture I wanted. The ratios were perfect, thank you!
Oh yeah, and I can’t find oat bran anywhere during quarantine since the bulk bins are gone, so I subbed the same amount of ground flax. It worked fine!
Hello
I’ve made this a couple of times now. The first time I made it completely as directed. Great! But I wanted more molasses flavor, so the second time I made it, I switched the amounts of brown sugar and molasses and I like it even more. I also pressed in 2 tbsp of flax seeds on the top after stirring the sugar liquid into the mixture and putting it on the baking sheet, so the seeds would stick to the granola clumps, to make this more helpful for breast-milk production. Mixed with a cup of plain whole yogurt and a half an apple sliced up, this breakfast is the best!
Just made this today. I wasn’t so sure about cloves because I don’t usually like it, but it was hardly noticeable. I also only had black strap molasses so I only put a tablespoon of it in. It took all I had not to eat it all while I was waiting for it to cool. It’s pretty amazing.
I ended up biting into a clove. Yuck. I’ll have to strain the sauce when I drizzle it onto the granola next time. :)
This is in the oven now and smells delicious! I used pumpkin seeds in place of sliced almonds. Cant wait to share this with my friend who loves gingersnaps.
Just made this and my roommates are jealous of how amazing the apartment smells. Can’t wait to dig in!
I used blackstrap molasses because that’s all we had at the food co-op where I work. It’s definitely a strong flavor, but I don’t think it overwhelmed the granola–I liked the result. Plus blackstrap molasses is such a nutritional boost. Then again, I work at the hippie store, so your mileage may vary…
I also used half and half golden raisins and chopped crystallized ginger.
The last few granola recipes (bases anyway, aren’t granolas just wonderfully customizable?!) were too sweet. Or blah. Or ended up hard not crunchy.
This one though…. Perfection. I really love that it’s just sweet enough.
I prefer my granola fruit free (add fresh later), so mine was this recipe except that and I added a bit of chia seeds . I did add a little fresh ginger as mentioned.
So yummy I rather over ate!!!
Thank you! This will be my go to.
Flavor is really good, but this did not hold together at all. This means that the 50 cents of oat bran (bought at the bulk section of Hy-Vee) just settled to the bottom. Very loose. Would make again but omit oat bran or add more fat and sugar to bind.
Just made this morning. Smells and tastes like heaven! I wouldn’t change a thing :)
I would like to recommend to you and everyone who uses parchment paper on a regular basis to invest in a Silpat. I have two, they were both gifts, but they are less than $20 on amazon, if your local cookware store doesn’t have them.
What is the golden liquid on the top of the yogurt and granola (the picture with the spoon)? The photo looks beautiful.
It’s a little drizzle of honey because my plain yogurt is quite tangy and can use a touch of sweetness. :)
Mmmm. Gingersnaps in a healthy breakfast form?! I’m in!
Oh Goodness Gracious!!! Looks fantastic. Pinned. Will be making this very soon. Thanks for sharing.
Can I use wheat bran instead of oat bran?
Yes, that should also work fine. :)
Ha! I made a batch of molasses granola this weekend w/ cinnamon and almonds, decided something was missing, and then made a 2nd batch where I subbed 1/2 of the cinnamon with ground ginger. Question, though: why the water? You are baking it until sufficient moisture is gone so it crisps up, so why add more than necessary if you’re just going to bake it out? I’ve always found my ingredients coat the oats well enough with just the oil, sugar and molasses (or corn syrup or honey or whatever I pick that time).
I find that just a little bit of water helps the sugar dissolve (a lot of granola recipes use honey, which doesn’t have this issue) and it just helps the mixture spread out over the oats a little bit better. My first batch didn’t have water and it was super thick and hard to stir into the oats, almost as if there wasn’t enough. When I added the water it coated the oats easily and the sugar was fully dissolved. :)
Sounds great!
But why not blackstrap molasses?
It has a SUPER strong flavor and can easily overwhelm everything else. I’ve had readers accidentally use black strap in other recipes that call for molasses and they all say that it ruined it. :(
Please tell me why to not use black strap molasses. I would like to make this.
Black strap has a much stronger flavor than regular molasses and will overwhelm all the flavors.
Love it, I’ll be making a few batches for the Holiday.
Granola is super tasty, but I’ve never tried making my own. Gingerbread with fresh pineapple sounds so good!
I was excited to see this recipe & made this today, omitting the raisins & using pecans instead of almonds. SO good with plain greek yogurt & a dash of maple syrup. I halved the recipe & mine was done perfectly at 20 minutes. Thanks for sharing!
Gingersnap cookies are one of my favorites! I’ll definitely be giving this granola a try.