---
title: "Simple Honey Granola"
description: "A plain honey granola that's mostly oats, with no fruit, nuts or seeds. It's baked low and slow until crisp. Good with yoghurt and fresh berries."
category: "Breakfast"
cuisine: "American"
serves: "12 bowls (about 45g each)"
prep: "5 mins"
cook: "30-35 mins"
author: "Thomas Chaplin"
site: "Chaplin Kitchen"
url: "https://chaplinkitchen.com/r/simple-honey-granola/"
datePublished: "2026-09-29T13:50:05+01:00"
dateModified: "2026-10-05T17:20:54+01:00"
---

# Simple Honey Granola

A plain honey granola that's mostly oats, with no fruit, nuts or seeds. It's baked low and slow until crisp. Good with yoghurt and fresh berries.

**Category:** Breakfast · **Cuisine:** American · **Serves:** 12 bowls _(about 45g each)_ · **Prep:** 5 mins · **Cook:** 30-35 mins

**Recipe URL:** https://chaplinkitchen.com/r/simple-honey-granola/

## Ingredients

- 400g jumbo rolled oats
- 70g caster sugar
- 15g honey _(1 tbsp, runny)_
- 30g rapeseed oil _(about 2 tbsp, or sunflower)_
- 30ml water

## Method

1. **Heat the oven.** Preheat the oven to 150°C/130°C fan/gas 2 and line two large baking trays with baking paper.
2. **Warm the syrup.** Put the sugar, honey, oil and water in a small pan over a low heat and stir until the sugar has completely dissolved and the syrup is clear, 2-3 minutes. It only needs to be warm and loose, not boiling.
3. **Coat the oats.** Tip the oats into a large bowl, pour over the warm syrup and stir for a good minute, scraping up from the bottom, until every flake looks faintly glossy and there are no dry patches left.
4. **Spread it thin.** Divide it between the two trays and spread it out in a single, even layer. Thin is what makes it crisp — piled up, the middle steams instead of toasting.
5. **Bake low and stir.** Bake for 30-35 minutes, stirring and turning it over with a spatula every 10 minutes and swapping the trays round each time. It is ready when it is an even pale gold and feels dry to the touch; it will still be a little soft while hot.
6. **Cool on the trays.** Leave it to cool completely on the trays, where it crisps up as it goes cold. Break up any bits that have stuck together, then tip it into an airtight jar or tin.

## Notes

- Serve it over thick Greek or natural yoghurt with a handful of berries — strawberries, raspberries and blueberries all work — and a thin drizzle of honey if you want it to taste more of honey. Milk works too, but yoghurt keeps it crunchy for longer.
- The honey is deliberately a hint rather than the main flavour; most of the sweetness comes from the sugar, which is what keeps it tasting simple. For more honey, swap 20g of the sugar for 20g more honey; it will colour faster, so check it at 25 minutes.
- Jumbo oats give big, separate flakes. Ordinary rolled oats work but come out finer and crunchier; quick or porridge oats turn to dust.
- Stirred as it bakes, it comes out as loose flakes with small clumps. For bigger clusters, press it flat with the spatula before baking and don't stir it — break it into pieces once cold.
- Seeds are an easy addition if you want more crunch. Stir 30-50g of sunflower or pumpkin seeds in with the oats before baking. Stir sesame or flax seeds in for the last 10 minutes only, because they are small enough to burn.
- A drop of vanilla extract in the syrup rounds it out if it tastes like something is missing.
- There is no salt in it. A small pinch in the syrup makes the honey taste more of itself, if you'd like it.
- In an air fryer, cook it in batches: a 5-6 litre basket holds about a third of the mixture in the thin layer it needs, and any deeper steams rather than crisps. Use a cake tin or solid silicone liner rather than the bare basket, so the smaller flakes don't fall through and loose paper can't blow up into the element. Cook each batch at 140°C (130°C if yours runs hot) for 8-12 minutes, shaking every 3-4 minutes, until pale gold and dry to the touch, then spread it flat to cool. It suits a half batch best — for the full amount the oven is less hassle.
- Keeps for 2-3 weeks in an airtight container. If it goes soft, 5 minutes back in a low oven brings it round.