The Genius Granola With a Cult Following

Every week in Genius Recipes—often with your help!—Food52 Creative Director and lifelong Genius-hunter Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that will change the way you cook.

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At least once a year, whenever I’m fumbling around for a jolt of happiness and inspiration, I like to go spy on the comment thread for Nekisia Davis’s Olive Oil and Maple Granola.

Unlike darker crannies of the internet, Food52 has always been an unusually welcoming space to ask questions, to share cooking triumphs (and flat-out fails), to experience the kind of supporting community so many of us crave in a haze of angry tweets and lonely scrolls through Instagram.

But this recipe is my favorite little nook. Everyone loves this granola—undying appreciation kind of love. People make it weekly. They have it every morning for breakfast. They wrap it up to give during the holidays, in mason jars and cellophane bags and Christmas-y tins. Their families and coworkers clamor for it.

And—maybe most notably—they make it their own. Every ingredient has been swapped or doubled or abandoned, depending on whim and what’s in the pantry. The technique, which is essentially just stirring, has spun off to work in a slow cooker; to become crispy granola bars; to get ditched in a cold oven for hours and picked back up. This recipe is unbreakable.

I’m rounding up the 50-ish ways community members have customized this recipe to date below to inspire you to do the same, for yourself or for your loved ones. Either way, you’re making a granola that will very likely change lives and become a staple for years to come.

But go read the comments first.

TECHNIQUES

• Make the granola in a slow cooker rather than the oven, like Rlsalvati does. "One thing I'm really good at is burning granola in my oven."
• Or turn the oven off and give it a mid-bake rest to get crispy and errand-friendly like Sara G does.
• Clumpy granola lovers: Stir less often like Sara G, press down and let the granola cool undisturbed like M, or mix in some egg whites before baking like Windischgirl.
• "Dissolve the maple syrup & sugar in the olive oil." Jen V swears it coats the ingredients better.
• Convert the ingredient measurements to weights so you can make your favorite version faster, and all in one bowl.
• Put your 9-year-old to work, like daisybrain: "He was very happy measuring and then digging his hands in to stir it up perfectly."

SWEETENERS

• Swap out the maple syrup for agave nectar: “Hands down, best granola I’ve had in my life! Lots of power for surfing, too!" says Maja.
• Or swap the brown sugar for coconut sugar.
• Or some of the maple syrup for honey.
• Or skip the sugar and add a well-mashed, overripe banana or a bit of applesauce. (Sara G picked up this tip from Nigella Lawson.)
• Many reviewers like to reduce the sweeteners (but many also don't). Rlsalvati wisely suggests: "I do cut down the sugar and maple syrup for our in-house consumption, but stick with the full recipe for gifts." (And she eats it every day in the warmer months.)

OLIVE OIL

• Swap in coconut oil.
• Or hazelnut oil.
• Or blood orange olive oil. "Simply AMAZING!" says Mary Margaret.
• Or leave it out (!), like Scribbles does.

COCONUT & NUTS

• Switch in shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)—handy, since the bigger flakes aren't always easy to find.
• Clean out your pantry and add it to the granola, like Windischgirl does, with a mix of Brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds, coconut flakes, and almonds.
• Or streamline and lean on salted pistachios. "Can it keep getting better?" (Yes, Beautiful, Memorable Food. It can.)

SPICES, EXTRACTS, SALTS & THINGS

• Pull in warming spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves) for “a great fall flavor,” Linda S recommends.
• Or use five-spice powder!
• Or vanilla!
• Or fancy up the salts with Himalayan pink salt (like suzgab) or Maldon smoked grey salt (like Krystal).

BONUS DOO-DADS

Seeds and grains aplenty:

• Add in oat bran...
• Or chia seeds or flax seeds “for that extra load of health” as VC does.
• Or some toasted wheat germ...
• Quinoa can go in, too!
• Same for activated buckwheat!

Just about any dried fruits you could imagine:

• Add in cranberries and raisins once the granola has cooled like Kerry G does.
• Or banana chips...
• Or dried dates, apricots, and mulberries...
• Or dried pineapple...
• Or diced candied ginger...
• Or follow VC’s lead: “Add some orange zest. Bam!”

Then there are the wildcard additions:

• Almond butter.
• Or chocolate chips (or bittersweet chocolate or crushed mint chocolate pretzels) once the granola has cooled.
• Or “cacao nibs if you're feeling fancy!” from Jen V.

HOW TO EAT IT

• Top ice cream and frozen yogurt and Greek yogurt, of course.
• Turn it into granola bars! Anna H substitutes the whole batch of granola for the oats and seeds in Merrill's granola bar recipe.
• Try Sue B’s dessert-turned-breakfast: warmed-up leftover apple galette, tart yogurt, and granola.
• Snack snack snack snack snack.

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Got a genius recipe to share—from a classic cookbook, an online source, or anywhere, really? Perhaps something perfect for beginners? Please send it my way (and tell me what's so smart about it) at [email protected].