You’re looking at the mother of all clusters.
You have been there, you have experienced the frustration, you’ve admitted defeat. You have felt the disappointment of non-clustering granola. While homemade granola is dandy with or without cluster, a granola that just doesn’t cluster is a real heart sinker, no matter how hard you stare at the bright side.
Well I’m done with all that. Deb Perelman’s recipe (from Smitten Kitchen) for Granola Crusted Nuts has given you, me , the world the gift of the largest clusters on the planet. You can be certain of this because if my calculations are correct, any time you wrap an entire nut in granola, you’re bound to have clustering. Deb calls the recipe “Granola Crusted Nuts”…I call it granola. Because I ne’er will I make granola in any other way again, praise be.
I upped the ante on Deb’s recipe because I happen to have a superb bounty of walnuts, plus I made the recipe naturally sweetened with coconut sugar (hollaaaaaaa!).
Here’s how it works – you take the ingredients (minus the nuts) you would normally use for granola…
….pulse them in a food processor to give them a little chop.
Coat whole walnuts (or pecans or nut of choice) in an egg white, water and some oil and then smoosh the mixture all up in the walnut’s grill using your hands…aaaaaaah dig in!
You bake. You cluster. You conquer.
This formula will win you the gold at the World’s Largest Cluster Competition. And you’re in it to win. Now go….go cluster like you ain’t never clustered.
Walnut Granola Clusters
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats
- 3 tablespoons pepitas pumpkin seeds
- ½ cup flaked coconut shredded works too
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar * or brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 egg white
- 1 teaspoon grapeseed oil
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3 cups walnuts
Instructions
- In a food processor, combine the oats, pepitas, flaked coconut, coconut sugar, salt and cinnamon. Pulse until you have a rough chop but do not pulse until you get a flour.
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg white until foamy (but not stiff). Add the water and oil and whisk to combine.
- Add the walnuts to the bowl of liquid and using your hands, make sure the walnuts are all completely drenched.
- Pour the oat/pepitas mixture into the bowl with the walnuts and use your hands again to coat the oats. The original recipe says not to mix too much or else the oat mixture will fall off of the walnuts, so I heeded this instruction.
- You will end up with more of the granola mixture than you need to coat the nuts. This is perfectly wonderful, because it adds little bits of heaven to the granola.
- Spread the coated walnuts out on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 20 minutes, carefully stirring the granola half-way through.
Notes
Nutrition
Thank you to everyone who participated in my Bob’s Red Mill Coconut Flour giveaway! A winner was randomly selected using a random number generator and has been notified via email! There will be another (woop woop!!) Bob’s Mill giveaway right here on Friday (1/8)!!
Yummm! This looks absolutely delicious! There’s nothing better than big, chunky granola clusters.
This looks so amazing! I need some right now to get me going this morning 🙂
If I tell you every time you post how much I love your blog, at what point will it start to be creepy?
This is awesome. I NEVER have clustered granola and would have NEVER thought to add an egg. Once again, thanks for sharing a great idea!
That’s it!! I didn’t use my food processor last time I made granola. Doiii!! This is brilliant, I’ve got another batch of granola to make and this is how I’ll do it 🙂 Hooray.
haha! a granola that doesn’t cluster is a real heart sinker! I love that line. This sounds amazing. I love granola clusters and this is a must! 🙂
I totally agree granola needs clusters! This looks amazing.
This so timely because just the other day when I was finishing up my own homemade granola for breakfast (as a cereal) I was thinking I needed to try and find a recipe that would give me the clumping granola that we could just munch on as a snack. I will be giving this a try—and I actually have all the ingredients on hand too!
As a granola lover and someone who agrees that granola shouldn’t be made without nuts, I totally support these clusters. And I am definitely going to have to make them when I get home. They look too wonderful for me not to!
I consider myself a granola snob…and I simply can’t wait to try this recipe. Thank you for another delicious post. And thank you for your sweet words on my blog! I hope you have a wonderful end to your week.
Love this recipe, Julia! I bet it’s super delicious for breakfast or a midday snack. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve been wanting to try this recipe from Deb’s book and now I absolutely must. I love how huge the clusters are. Yumma.
The clusters are always my favorite part of granola. This looks so good, Julia!
dang that is some good granola.
Granola was meant to have clusters! I love those HUGE chunks!
Granola is one of my weaknesses…and these big nut clusters look irresistible!
These look absolutely heavenly! Have you ever had Giddy Up and Go Granola? Yours looks so similar; god, just looking at your photos makes me simultaneously salivate and scream PORTION CONTROL!
Ooh, I love yummy clusters of granola. Totally the perfect snack food!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! I’ve adapted it slightly to make hazelnut clusters to top a homemade rhubarb ripple ice cream and oh my, it’s delicious!
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I have to share this story with you regarding this delicious recipe. I make a batch or three weekly so that my kids and their friends have something healthy to grab and snack on when they play at ours. Two days ago my neighbor comes over and asks me what I have been feeding her kids because her son keeps asking her for those nut crumbs! So from now on your recipe is going to be referred to as nut crumbs in our home. Also, just want to share that the first 100 times or so I battled with trying to make the ‘dough’ part stick to the nuts, now I just mix everything together, press it firmly down on the baking sheet and when it’s done, it breaks into perfect sized chunks when it’s lifted it off the baking sheet.
LOL, Madeleine, that is too precious!! I’m so happy you, your kids, and their friends have been enjoying the nut crumbs. They really are so addicting! In fact, I may just have to whip up another batch this weekend to share with friends. Thanks so much for sharing your story.