White Chocolate Granola

A wholesome homemade white chocolate granola recipe plus some tips for customizing your own.

White Chocolate Granola

I feel about recipes the same way I feel about shoes: when you find a pair you love get it in every color. Recipe-speaking, it’s the joy in discovering a base recipe that you can tweak so you never have to have it the same way twice. Tomato sauce, pesto, chili, macaroni and cheese are a few of the dishes featured on this blog upwards of five or six times each over the last eight years. For some it may seem repetitious, but, for me, it’s what I love best about cooking. Make a basic recipe, change it up, learn from the mistakes and celebrate the improvements. Because, just like my favorite pair of wedges, it’s not enough to have one tomato sauce recipe. I need several for every season.

And now granola enters the pantheon of recipes with endless possibilities. Today marks the third time I’m sharing a crunchy, chewy oat-based breakfast because 1) there’s something wonderful and wholesome about baking a batch of granola, 2) it’s so much better than any store-bought granola and 3) during the summer I love some creamy yogurt, fresh berries, and homemade granola served up parfait-style.

How to Make and Customize Granola

Granola is a dump and stir operation starting with oats, sugar, oil, salt, spices, and vanilla. It takes 20-30 minutes to bake and keeps up to a week in an airtight container. I adapted my base recipe from a granola recipe I found on Chowhound – from there you can add in whatever sounds good to you. It’s a great way to use up ingredients hiding in your pantry and, for this latest rendition, it was some white chocolate chips and chopped walnuts that I tossed in the mix.

• I like something sweet in my granola. Chocolate chips (dark, milk, or semi-sweet all work), butterscotch chips, or chopped up peanut butter cups are some favorites. I add these components after baking the granola.
• Nuts. Walnuts, slivered almonds, roasted peanuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios, and cashews are a few I’ve tried. Stick with one type or do a mix of your favorites. Add the nuts in before you bake the granola so they get all toasty. If you use salted nuts be sure to cut back any added salt in the recipe.
• Fruit. I like a handful of fresh fruit with my morning granola, but dried fruit – like apricots, cranberries, raisins, shredded coconut and dates – can be mixed in once the granola is cooled. You can also serve it with fruit salad.

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