RuthAnn’s Granola

This hearty granola is a staple in our kitchen, perfect for feeding a crowd or stocking the pantry. Made with simple ingredients—crispy rice cereal, chopped walnuts, coconut sugar, and cinnamon—it comes together with melted butter and a choice of healthy fats like lard, tallow, or nut butter. Baked slowly at a low temperature, it develops a rich flavor and crunchy texture that is unmatched by grocery store granola.

Whether enjoyed with cold milk, sprinkled over homemade yogurt, or eaten by the handful as a snack, this granola brings comfort and tradition to the table.

Printing the recipe below in the recipe card is an option, or I have included my favorite way to write out recipes in a PDF, feel free to download using the button below!

RuthAnn's Granola

This is definitely a FAMILY SIZE recipe and makes over a gallon of granola.

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Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

7 cups rice crispies (or any unsweetened cereal that youare comfortable with)
7 cups chopped walnuts (I chop mine very fine in blender because my family doesn't like to find chunks of walnuts. you could use any nuts or seeds and chop them to your family's liking or don't chop them at all)
1.5 cups coconut sugar (you could use any sugar here, we use coconut sugar because its easier on blood sugar levels)
1 tbs cinnamon
1 tsp salt
dried fruits, or add chocolate chips after baking optional

Fat

2 cups melted fat (I almost always use 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of one of the following fats: lard, tallow, coconut oil, peanut butter, or any nut butter.)

Instructions

Stir fat into dry ingredients and mix well.
Bake at 250F for 2-3 hours stirring every 15-20 min.

Notes

I put mine in my large roast pan to bake it and so it takes longer, alternatively you could spread it thinner in cake pans or cookie sheets and pop into a 350F oven right after you bake something, turn the oven off and let it set until its cooled down.

Storing: We store in a glass gallon jar in what used to be our cereal cupboard

Serving suggestions: We eat it with cold milk like cereal, or we use it as a topping on our greek yogurt. Add fresh or dried fruit.

Tips: Remember it will take time for your family to adjust to less sugary and more nutritious foods. its a ‘weaning’ process and removing the sugary foods and immediately replacing with healthy alternatives rarely has been successful for me. It works better to stop purchasing/offering the sugary foods and then after a couple weeks/months of ‘doing without’ the granola seems tastier to them than when it was offered side by side with sugary cereal. Another tip is to add more sugar than the recipe calls for and then slowly back off on the sugar until its an amount that you are comfortable with and they are still loving!!