Weight Watchers Recipe of the Day: Healthy Maple Granola
Do you love gourmet granola but not the expensive prices? Why not make it yourself?
Homemade Granola Photo Courtesy Flickr - Cuttlefish
It's really easy to make granola at home. And a lot cheaper too. And by being in charge of the ingredients you include you can make it a lot more Weight Watchers friendly!
Recipe Notes
All you need is a great granola recipe to use as a template and some helpful tips and hints to guide you to granola making success.
Mine is adapted from the great book, The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great (affiliate link), by cookbook writer Pam Anderson who lost over 40 pounds while indulging in wonderful recipes like this one.
The nice thing about homemade granola is that you can make it exactly as you like it.
Lots of granola recipes call for honey, but I like maple syrup, so I use it instead. That's one of the reasons I think this is the best granola recipe.
Of course you can use whatever liquid sweetener you like best. Just be sure to adjust your WW Points accordingly when making any substitutions.
How Many Calories and WW Points in this Maple Granola?
According to my calculations, each serving of this maple granola has about 110 calories and:
5 *SmartPoints (Green plan)
5 *SmartPoints (Blue plan)
4 *SmartPoints (Purple plan)
3 *PointsPlus (Old plan)
To see your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, Click here!
My Cooking Notes and Use What You Have Variations:
- Use whatever combination of nuts, seeds and dried fruits you like best to total about 1 cup.
Walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews, hazelnuts, peanuts, coconut, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins, dried cherries, or any other chopped dried fruit would work well, just adjust your PointsPlus values accordingly. - You can double the recipe.
Be sure to split the mixture between two pans to bake it. Increase the cooking time if necessary until it is a nice golden brown. - Make your granola with even less fat.
Try substituting unsweetened applesauces for the oil. - Add couple of tablespoons of your favorite nut butter.
Stirring your favorite nut butter in with the maple syrup is a tasty addition. - Try other flavorings
More flavors that work well include ground ginger and vanilla.
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Helpful Tips & Hints for Making Homemade Granola
Skinny Pumpkin Spice Quinoa & Cranberry Granola
Use old-fashioned oats.
For the best results, use old-fashioned (not quick) oats so they bake into a nice crisp, golden granola. Quick oats will create a powdery texture with an unpleasant raw starchy taste.
Use a little bit of water.
It will help the cereal clump together. The water, when combined with the other liquid ingredients will mix with the wheat germ to create a tasty paste. Squeeze the cereal with your hands before baking to form small delicious clumps and clusters.
Use a combination of liquid and dry sweeteners.
I'm not a huge honey fan so I prefer to use straight maple syrup. But if you like, use honey or a combination of honey and maple syrup. Mix the brown sugar with the dry ingredients to add great color and flavor.
Use a little salt.
Just a little will help bring out the granola's flavors.
Bake your granola at a low temperature (around 275F).
At this oven temperature the cereal crisps up and browns evenly without burning.
Add the dried fruit part way through baking.
Adding the fruit too early is likely to dry it out too much.
If you've made this low calorie Maple Granola, please give the recipe a star rating below and leave a comment letting me know how you liked it. And stay in touch on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates.
Healthy Homemade Maple Granola Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats, not quick cooking
- ½ cup wheat germ
- 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup slivered almonds or chopped walnuts
- ¼ cup coconut
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons water
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- ¼ cup chopped dried apricots
Instructions
- Make sure one of your oven racks is placed in the center of your oven and heat oven to 275F degrees. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl (affiliate link) mix the oats, wheat germ, brown sugar, salt, almonds and coconut with a wooden spoon (affiliate link) until well combined and set aside.
- In a small saucepan bring the maple syrup, oil, water, and cinnamon to a simmer over low heat.
- Drizzle the syrup mixture over the oat mixture and stir until combined.
- Pour the mixture onto the prepared baking pan. Squeeze the mixture a handful at a time to from small clumps.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Stir in the dried cranberries and apricots and continue to bake until golden, about 20 minutes more, or until a nice rich golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and cool.
- Once completely cool, store in an airtight container for up to 1 month.
Recipe Notes
For the best results, use old-fashioned (not quick) oats so they bake into a nice crisp, golden granola. Quick oats will create a powdery texture with an unpleasant raw starchy taste. Use a Little Bit of Water.
It will help the cereal clump together. The water, when combined with the other liquid ingredients will mix with the wheat germ to create a tasty paste. Squeeze the cereal with your hands before baking to form small delicious clumps and clusters. Use a Combination of Liquid and Dry Sweeteners.
I'm not a huge honey fan so I prefer to use straight maple syrup. But if you like, use honey or a combination of honey and maple syrup. Mix the brown sugar with the dry ingredients to add great color and flavor. Use a Little Salt.
Just a little will help bring out the granola's flavors. Bake your Granola at a Low Temperature (around 275F).
At this oven temperature the cereal crisps up and browns evenly without burning. Add the Dried Fruit Part Way Through Baking.
Adding the fruit too early is likely to dry it out too much. Serving size: ¼ cup Click here to see your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site.. 5 *SmartPoints (Green plan) 5 *SmartPoints (Blue plan) 4 *SmartPoints (Purple plan) 3 *PointsPlus (Old plan)
Recipe adapted from:
- The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great (affiliate link) by Pam Anderson
- Great Granola (USA Weekend)
*Points® calculated by WW. *PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® calculated by Simple Nourished Living; Not endorsed by Weight Watchers International, Inc. All recipe ingredients except optional items included in determining nutritional estimates. SmartPoints® values calculated WITHOUT each plan's ZeroPoint Foods (Green plan, Blue plan, Purple plan) using the WW Recipe Builder.
More Healthy Breakfast Recipes for Weight Watchers
- A Great Granola Bar Recipe
- My Favorite Healthy Easy Breakfast - Magical Healthy Yogurt Cream
- Healthy Breakfast Cookie Recipes
- Healthy Summer Muesli - A Great Summer Breakfast Cereal
Links to more great granola recipes
- Convection Oven Granola - from Anna at Cookie Madness
- Pumpkin Granola - from Two Peas and their Pod
- Ina Garten's Homemade Granola - found at The Food Network
- Homemade Granola Recipe & Video - found at The Joy of Baking
Martha is the founder and main content writer for Simple-Nourished-Living.
A longtime lifetime WW at goal, she is committed to balancing her love of food and desire to stay slim while savoring life and helping others do the same.
She is the author of the Smart Start 28-Day Weight Loss Challenge.
A huge fan of the slow cooker and confessed cookbook addict, when she's not experimenting in the kitchen, you're likely to find Martha on her yoga mat.
This post contains affiliate links to products I like. When you buy something through one of my Amazon links or other (affiliate links), I receive a small commission that helps support this site. Thank you for your purchase!
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Tracey @ Veggies, Cake and Cocktails
Granola is one of those things I've been wanting to make but haven't done. I know exactly what I would want to include in it and I'm positive it would taste good 🙂 I'm going to have to try it soon!
Tommy
Fantastic! I made it with unsweetened applesauce and Lakanto Golden instead of brown sugar.