The grown up version of cinnamon toast crunch. All your favourite nostalgic childhood flavours with more than half of the sugar. Introducing: the chunkiest cinnamon sugar granola. The perfect way to start your week off strong.
I love meal prepping a batch of this cinnamon sugar granola to keep on hand for busy weeks. It's made with whole grain oats, healthy fats and naturally sweetened with bananas. Meaning it not only tastes amazing but it's also HEALTHIER. It's so good it can be eaten with milk, topped on an oatmeal or yogurt bowl or eaten straight out of the jar. Whatever way you choose to enjoy it
Cinnamon Toast Crunch was my favourite cereal growing up. Saturday mornings were all about waking up at 8am, turning on cartoons and pouring myself a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I loved how the cereal not only tasted amazing but the cinnamon sugar powder would spill into the milk making the milk taste amazing too! Now that I'm older I still love it. The only problem is I wouldn't really call it a balanced breakfast. Don't get me wrong there's no better late night snack than your favourite cereal. It's just lacking the protein, fibre and healthy fats I typically look for while creating a meal.
That's why I created this cinnamon sugar granola. It has the same great taste of your favourite cereal (even the powdery cinnamon sugar coating) with a few tweaks to help power you through your day.
PS. If you want to stick with the cinnamon sugar vibes you NEED to try these cinnamon sugar baked oats!
What Ingredients do I need for this Cinnamon Sugar Granola?
Oats- You cant have cinnamon sugar granola without oats! I typically use minute oats in my recipes because that's what is most available to me. However you can also use rolled or quick oats!
Banana- For natural sweetness! I have never tried to make this recipe without the banana however you could try to increase the other wet ingredients and see if it works!
Nut Butter- To help keep everything together. I typically will use peanut butter in this granola but any nut butter works! Nut butter helps act as a glue to stick all of the dry ingredients together.
Honey- A natural sweeter and binder. Similar to the banana, the honey acts as a way to make this granola a little sweeter without added cane sugar. Due to it's stick nature, it also helps stick everything together like the nut butter!
Cinnamon- LOTS of cinnamon! You can't have cinnamon sugar granola without cinnamon. Seriously the more cinnamon the better.
Nuts and Seeds- This is totally up to you! I've tried this granola with just chopped almonds. I've tried with a mix of walnuts, almonds, chia and hemp seeds. I've even tried with cashews. The choice is yours!
Brown Sugar- Completely optional but highly recommended. The brown sugar in this recipe helps create the perfect cinnamon sugar powder coating to give the granola those nostalgic vibes.
I love seeing you make my recipes! Be sure to tag me on Instagram @nourishedbynic or leave a comment here letting me know how it was 🙂
Cinnamon Sugar Granola
Ingredients
- 1 + ½ cups oats any type of oats will work
- ¼ cup nut butter of choice cashew, peanut or almond butter
- ¼ cup honey
- ½ 1 banana mashed
- ½ cup nuts or seeds of choice whatever you have on hand! (crushed walnuts, sliced almonds, hemp seeds, flax seed etc.)
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- salt to taste
Optional (for more flavour)
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
- In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, nut butter, honey, cinnamon, mashed banana, vanilla extract, and salt
- Evenly spread and press the granola onto a prepared baking sheet in one large piece (it should easily stick together). You can press it down until it’s about ¼ inch thick.
- If using: combine the optional sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle half of this mixture over the top of the granola before putting it in the oven.
- Bake granola for 30-35 minutes or until the edges start to brown
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least one hour to allow the granola to harden
- After the granola has cooled, break it into pieces (I like bigger chunks) toss with the rest of the cinnamon sugar mixture, and store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks
