Healthy Apple Cinnamon Granola

 

 
I recently read a novel set on an apple orchard in the English countryside. As I turned its pages, descriptions of straight rows, stately trees, and delicate blossoms filled the chapters, and I could almost smell the fragrant bright red fruit when the plot finally reached harvest season.

In the book, the owner of the family-run farm turned most of her apples into juice and cider, yet a few scenes depicted festivals that she hosted in their fields. Those gatherings included stalls selling other apple-flavored treats, like pies, crumbles, jams, and even fruit-filled crêpes.
 

 
Towards the end, that same lady’s granddaughter brainstormed more ways to expand their family business. She vocalized visions of renovating buildings on their land to house a restaurant and deli, ones that sold more products, some apple-centered and others that paired well with the wide variety of ciders they already produced.

By the time I finished the epilogue, I craved all sorts of apple treats, and new recipe ideas of my own bounced around my head. While I’m still working on testing some of the more elaborate ones…
 

 
This healthy apple cinnamon granola was the perfect place to start! It’s straightforward and made with just seven ingredients, including two types of apples. Paired with milk, yogurt, or even munched on plain… This granola tastes wonderful any way you eat it!
 

 

QUICK OVERVIEW – HEALTHY APPLE GRANOLA

Difficulty: Easy, including for many beginner bakers.

Taste: Very lightly sweetened with lots of cozy spices, punctuated by bright pops of fruity flavor and natural sweetness from apple chips.

Texture: Hearty clusters that are perfectly crunchy, paired with light and crispy baked apple chips.
 

 

INGREDIENTS TO MAKE HEALTHY APPLE GRANOLA

Let’s go over what you’ll need to make this healthy apple cinnamon granola! There’s a very good chance you have most (if not all!) of the ingredients in your kitchen already.

Oats. A granola staple! Both old-fashioned rolled oats and instant oats work in this recipe. They have the same health benefits, like extra fiber and micronutrients, so use whatever you already have on hand. No need for a special trip to the grocery store!

Tip: If you’d like to make your apple granola gluten free, that’s easy to do! Use certified gluten free old-fashioned rolled oats or certified gluten free instant oats.

Just remember… Instant oats are not the ones that come in individual packets with flavors like “apple cinnamon” or “maple brown sugar!” They’re just smaller and thinner than old-fashioned rolled oats. They only include one ingredient: oats!

Bonus Tip: Because instant oats are smaller and thinner, they make excellent soft and chewy oatmeal cookies. ← You can find all of my oatmeal cookie recipes there! (I’ve shared 60+ of them — they’re one of my favorite things to make!)
 

 
Crisp rice cereal. I love including this in my granola recipes, and I bet many of your favorite brands of store-bought granola incorporate it too. Because of its light and crisp texture, it’s an easy, low-calorie way to add extra crunch to your granola!

I gravitate more towards brown rice cereal and really like Barbara’s. One° is a nice option too. If you can’t find the brown kind, regular crisp rice cereal (such as Rice Krispies) also works equally well.

Tip: Many brands of crisp brown rice cereal are certified gluten free (including the two I listed above!), so if you use either of those and certified gluten free oats, your apple granola will be gluten free too!
 

 
Sweetener. I opted for pure maple syrup, which made this apple cinnamon granola vegan. As a quick refresher, pure maple syrup comes directly from maple trees and only includes one ingredient: maple syrup! No refined sugar, no corn syrup, and no artificial ingredients in it. You can usually find it on the baking aisle in thin glass bottles or squat plastic jugs (like this!).

I didn’t add very much maple syrup… After all, I wanted this to be breakfast granola — not a dessert! Therefore, the granola clusters themselves are only lightly sweetened, but I found the apple chips (more on those momentarily!) added a big, strong pop of sweetness that boosted the overall flavor of the granola quite nicely.

I’ve also tried sugar free maple syrup, and while it produced a similar texture, the granola didn’t taste quite as sweet… But you can add a little extra and bake your granola a little longer to compensate!

Tip: Honey and agave both work too! So just like with the oats, use whatever you already have in your pantry or fridge. That’s the beauty of this recipe — it’s easily adaptable to the ingredients you keep on hand!
 

 
Spices. Yes, plural! I mixed cinnamon and nutmeg into this granola. The cinnamon added that familiar cozy flavor, while the nutmeg provided a deeper richness and comforting taste. I highly recommend using both!

Tip: Something else I highly recommend? Saigon cinnamon! It has a stronger, richer, slightly sweeter flavor than regular cinnamon. I’m obsessed with it and rarely use anything else in my baking recipes! I buy it online here, and it’s inexpensive and really affordable.

Unsweetened applesauce. This is the first apple product you’ll need to make this apple cinnamon granola. It acts as the binder that glues everything together into those big crunchy clusters we all know and love.

As a little backstory, I’ve used egg whites to do that in my granola recipes for years. They work beautifully as a binder, and I loved how they add a protein boost too! But because of some family members’ dietary needs, I wanted to develop an egg-free granola recipe that they could enjoy too. After how well my eggless pumpkin spice granola turned out last fall, I decided to give applesauce (another common egg replacer ingredient!) a try…

And it worked perfectly! However, applesauce barely adds any apple flavor, so you’ll mix in a second ingredient to give this granola its irresistible fruity taste, which is…
 

 
Baked apple chips. I was shocked at how much of a flavor punch these bits packed. It basically felt like biting into a fresh apple… Just without all of the juice!

Bare’s Fujis & Reds are the baked apple chips I use the most. Some other brands add spices, sweeteners, or preservatives to their apple chips, but Bare’s only include one ingredient… Apples!

Tip: Baked apple chips aren’t always the easiest thing to find (they were out of stock at my normal grocery stores, but I found a decent amount at Target!). If you’re having difficulty locating them, you can order them online. Freeze dried apples are a great substitute, and regular dried apples work too.

No oil? That’s right! This apple cinnamon granola contains no oil, but it still has lots of big crunchy clusters. I use a special baking trick to do that, which I’ll share with you in a minute!

No butter? Right again! I’ve found you don’t necessarily need any oil or butter to make beautifully crisp and crunchy granola clusters. And as a result of using unsweetened applesauce — but no dairy or eggs — this apple granola is vegan, dairy free, and egg free too!
 

 

HOW TO MAKE THE BEST APPLE GRANOLA

Now that you’ve assembled your ingredients, let’s cover how to make the best apple granola. This recipe is simple and straightforward, but I still have some tips for you to ensure you end up with the biggest, coziest, and crunchiest clusters!

Mix gently but quickly. It’s a one-bowl recipe, which I always appreciate… Mainly because it means fewer dishes to wash! 😉 After stirring together the wet ingredients, you’ll mix in the oats and rice cereal. You’ll hear that iconic “snap, crackle, pop” (just like the jingle!) when adding the latter, so it’s important to work quickly so the rice cereal doesn’t turn soggy and disintegrate — but be gentle! You don’t want to completely mash the rice cereal so it deflates and disintegrates that way either.

Basically… Take a semi-Goldilocks approach. Quickly + gently = just right!
 

 
Large rimmed baking sheet. This is my first trick for big crunchy granola clusters! I used to bake homemade granola in either a square or rectangular cake pan, but I often ended up with clusters that were either {a} a bit too soft and chewy or {b} crunchy ones that were teensy tiny. Then I tried the baking method from my friend Phi’s five-ingredient cookbook…

Total game-changer!

She recommended a large rimmed baking sheet instead. It has a larger surface area, which means you can spread out the granola in a thinner layer. This achieves a few things: it {a} prevents the granola from steaming (aka soggy or chewy clusters!), {b} requires less stirring (aka teensy tiny clusters!), and {c} finishes baking in less time (aka you get to eat it that much sooner!).

Win-win-win!

Minimal gentle stirring. After its first stint in the oven, you’ll break apart the giant granola layer. I aim for substantial, somewhat oversized clusters — because it’s much easier to break those apart into smaller bite-sized pieces at the end than it is to figure out a way to stick teensy tiny granola bits back together. 😉

Again, be minimal and gentle! Too much or too vigorous of stirring will make your clusters fall apart. Move them around just enough so that they bake evenly yet still stick together.
 

 
Bake until crunchy. The granola will only crisp up a little bit more as it cools to room temperature on the baking sheet, so continue baking until it feels firm and hard. If it still feels soggy or soft, even after the amount of time given in the Instructions, it’s okay to leave it in the oven longer! The amount of time your granola needs to finish baking does depend on the size and thickness of your clusters. Remember…

Bigger + thicker (or taller!) clusters = require longer to bake.

Don’t panic. Your granola may turn very dark brown while it bakes — and that’s okay! Some sweeteners caramelize more quickly than others, which means your granola may look much darker in color than what you see in boxes at the grocery store, or even compared to the granola in my photos. As long as your granola isn’t black like charcoal, you haven’t burned it! 😉
 

 
Break apart big clusters. Once the granola is cool enough to touch, break any ginormous clusters into more bite-sized pieces to make it easier to eat. I suppose this is optional… I’m someone who picks out the biggest clusters to enjoy first, so I wouldn’t blame you one bit if you left all of them extra large!

Wait to add the apple chips. I like to wait until the granola has cooled completely to room temperature so the baked apple chips don’t turn soggy or soft from the warm cereal. Depending on the exact brand you buy, you may want to break the apple chips into smaller bits before sprinkling them over the granola clusters too. (Some of the ones in my bags of Bare’s Fujis & Reds were the width of entire full-sized apples!)
 

 

FAQS ABOUT APPLE GRANOLA

Is this apple cinnamon granola gluten free, dairy free, egg free, vegan, or low calorie?
Yes — to everything! It’s naturally dairy free, egg free, and vegan. If you use certified gluten free oats and rice cereal, your apple granola will be gluten free. It’s also clean eating, low fat, low calorie… And nut free too!

Can I use a different kind of oats?
Absolutely! Old-fashioned rolled oats and instant oats (the regular or gluten free versions!) both work equally well in this apple granola recipe. I don’t recommend substituting steel-cut oats though; they don’t bake the same way and change the granola’s texture.

What can I substitute for the rice cereal?
If you can’t find crisp brown rice cereal, regular crisp rice cereal (such as Rice Krispies) is the next best thing. Lightly crushed rice pocket cereal (ie Rice Chex) will also work.

In a pinch, you can substitute additional oats… Just remember that they’ll somewhat change the texture. (See the “crisp rice cereal” header in the “Ingredients to Make Healthy Apple Granola” section above for more info!)
 

 
Can I use a different sweetener?
You bet! I’ve included the best alternatives in the Notes section of the recipe.

What if I don’t have unsweetened applesauce?
Sweetened applesauce would be the best alternative! Otherwise, you can use the egg whites trick I use in many of my granola recipes. See the Notes section for how to substitute those instead!

What are the best apple chips to use?
I really like Bare’s baked apple chips, especially their bags of Fuji’s & Reds. They only contain apples — nothing else! — and have a great naturally sweet fruit flavor. Freeze dried apples and regular dried apples (the soft and chewy kind, not the crisp and crunchy dried “chip” kind!) also work!
 

 
How should I store this apple granola? And how long does it last?
Store your granola in an airtight container. When left at room temperature, it should keep for at least five days, if not longer!

Can I freeze this apple granola?
Yup! Just freeze the clusters though, and wait to add the apple chips until after you thaw it. After thawing, the granola will be on the soft side, but it’ll turn just as crisp and crunchy as before if you pop it in the oven on a baking sheet for a bit. See the Notes section of the recipe for more info!
 

 
So… Does anyone else reach for the biggest clusters first? Or is that just me??

Then when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your healthy apple cinnamon granola!

View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
 
 
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡  The Ultimate Healthy Homemade Granola
♡  Healthy Pumpkin Spice Granola
♡  Healthy Peanut Butter Granola
♡  Healthy Chocolate Granola
♡  Healthy Almond Butter Granola
♡  Healthy Blueberry Granola
♡  Healthy Vanilla Almond Granola
♡  Healthy Maple Pecan Granola
♡  …and the rest of Amy’s healthy granola recipes and healthy apple-flavored recipes!