I’ve been on a pumpkin kick lately. This pumpkin maple granola recipe is free of processed or refined sugars and is sweetened simply with maple syrup and natural pumpkin flavors. I’ve been enjoying it most days during these last couple of weeks of the October Unprocessed challenge, making for a perfect unprocessed breakfast alongside my homemade vanilla bean yogurt.
Some of the other pumpkin recipes I’ve been experimenting with lately include – Pumpkin Caramel Sauce and Pumpkin Caramel Popcorn. Both of those recipes will be posted within a couple of weeks! Here are a few past posts on pumpkin recipes –
Pumpkin Cake with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
For the pumpkin maple granola, all you need is a few simple ingredients. You may add whatever nuts or dried fruit you have around your pantry and feel free to alter the spices to your liking. The main things you need are oats, pumpkin puree and maple syrup, and the rest is up to you!
Pumpkin Maple Granola
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 2 egg whites
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger
- pinch cloves
- pinch salt
- 4 cups oats
- 3/4 cup pecans, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup coconut
- 1/3 cup pepitas
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- 3/4 cup dried cherries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a big mixing bowl whisk together all of the first 8 ingredients (pumpkin through salt). Stir well to combine. Add in the oats, pecans, coconut, pepitas and chia seeds, leaving only the dried cherries out. (You'll add the cherries in after the granola is cooked so they don't get hard and dried out.)
- Pinch the oat mixture together to form little clumps on top of the baking sheet (this helps form more chunky granola).
- Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes, gently stir the edges then bake another 10 minutes. If the granola is still not crisp after 40 minutes then turn the heat down to 275 and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Note that it will crisp more as it cools down.
- Let cool completely then mix in dried cherries. Store in an air tight container.
- Serve over yogurt, with milk, or as a snack.
Notes
This looks delicious. I’m on a huge pumpkin kick too/
I’m so glad you developed this recipe cause I’ve been wanting to make a pumpkin granola and I can always count on your recipes. Thanks for doing the hard work for me, friend! We should have a pumpkin festival. 🙂
What a beguiling recipe for autumn! It’s such a cold dreary morning, I could certainly enjoy a big bowl of comforting granola with maple and pumpkin!
i just bought a massive thing of pepitas and several cans of pumpkin – i think i was meant to make this!
Perfect! You’ll have to let me know what you think.
I’m not the biggest fan of pumpkin and this granola still looks appealing to me! Good work.
Thank you 🙂 Josh isn’t a big fan of pumpkin either so I thought this granola would be all mine but he ended up loving it!
I am cheering on your pumpkin kick. Keep them coming, Becky! This granola is just the sort of thing I’d love to dive into in the morning.
Pumpkin granola is so good right now!
I would so much rather eat savory pumpkin instead of sweet but like, Annalise, this looks very tempting!
i love the idea of pumpkin granola. thanks for the recipe. i’m a newbie in terms of making my own granola so i have a couple of questions that perhaps you could help me with — does the pumpkin “relpace” the oil/butter seen in other recipes? or is it the combination of the two? 1/2 of maple syrup seems like a lot to me – how sweet is this? since i’m not a big fan of maple syrup could it be replaced by something else? what about natural peanut butter? or would that be more along the lines of the oil in the recipe? thanks again for the recipe. rock on pumpkin 🙂
Jacquie, Thanks for stopping by my blog! You might try my original post on granola – https://www.thevintagemixer.com/2010/10/best-granola-recipe/. Many granola recipes call for both sugar and oil. This pumpkin granola has neither but still has a good crunch. The maple syrup sweetens it lightly. You could also use agave or honey to replace maple syrup. Also, my friend Annalise wrote a whole post about making homemade granola, hope you find it helpful too – http://www.completelydelicious.com/2012/10/how-to-make-your-own-granola.html
I love this and could really go for some right now!!
Thanks for the recipe. The sweetness of the maple syrup seems to perfectly go along with the pumpkin. Nice post.
Can you use steel cut oats? I have everything on hand, just not rolled oats, only steel cut.
Thanks!
I usually use a combination of steel cut and regular. I’m thinking it would be best to do mostly regular rolled oats for this recipe. Good luck!