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If you need a special homemade gift for someone, a cute bag of this delicious Gift Bag Granola is perfect! Unlike most recipes on my website it’s not particularly healthy (other than being homemade with basic ingredients), but I have healthy options too if that’s what you’re after:
- Briana’s Homemade Granola (our favorite staple sugar free granola recipe – THM XO)
- Candy Bar Granola (a fancier granola recipe for special occasions or a healthier gift option)
Granola is something we always have on hand for quick breakfasts. We typically eat it with milk as a breakfast cereal, but sometimes I sprinkle it over Greek yogurt with some chia seeds and honey for a special breakfast bowl. My husband loves to have it available for a filling breakfast before heading off to the hospital for the day. Usually I make this sugar free version (a THM XO, because granola without plenty of fat to crisp up the oats isn’t really granola imo), but in Africa when I ran out of some of the ingredients I came up with another recipe based off of my mother-in-law’s famous granola.
This year when I was trying to think of something to buy or make for my MomCo table (a group of 6 ladies + me), granola came to mind! It only takes basic ingredients but it’s something that most people love. The best part? It can be made in bulk! I made a double batch of this granola recipe to fill 6 good-sized bags.
Shoutout to @a_heidimarie on Instagram for the idea of adding chocolate chips to warm granola and then stirring them in a bit for delicious chocolatey chunks! They make this granola special for sure, and my children can’t stay out of it. Obviously:
To assemble the granola gift bags:
To create cute granola gift bags, I used the “giant” 12 inch tall brown paper lunch bags from Walmart, drew festive designs with metallic Sharpies, and filled them half full of granola. I folded the top of the bag over twice and stapled it. Then I stapled the middle of a length of red and white striped ribbon along with the corner of a gift tag to the top of each bag before tying the ribbon into a bow.
CLICK HERE for some printable gift tags and CLICK HERE for some printable recipe cards with this granola recipe in case your friends ask for it or you want to provide ingredients for allergy reasons. (Both of these are created for 8.5 x 11 paper. I recommend cardstock if you can! This paper cutter makes cutting them apart a breeze. The gift tags are 8/sheet and are a single page. The recipe cards are 4/sheet and you can print double-sided for a fun backing. Scroll to the bottom of this post if you want to see pictures of these before clicking. Clicking will take you to PDFs here on my site.)
Supplies:
- 12 inch brown paper lunch bags (Walmart is way cheaper than Amazon here if you just need a few)
- Stapler
- Metallic Sharpies
- Red and white ribbon (got this from Walmart too)
- Gift tags (free printable)
- Recipe cards (free printable)
- Paper cutter
(with a side of my favorite string lights and the best THM Deep S single serve eggnog recipe)
Gift Bag Granola
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 20 cups
Description
If you need a special homemade gift for someone, a cute bag of this delicious Gift Bag Granola is perfect!
Just to clarify, this recipe is NOT trying to be healthy and is NOT THM friendly. Just in case you missed the 2 cups of brown sugar. Instead of trying to adapt this one to be healthier, try my favorite basic THM XO granola or this Candy Bar Granola recipe.
I made a double batch of this recipe to fill 6 good-sized bags.
Ingredients
- 1500g quick oats (18 cups)
- 2 cups white or wheat flour (almond flour might work too; can use flaxmeal or chia seeds for a small part of this to make it more interesting – maybe 1/4 cup each)
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 1 1/2 cups oil of choice (I used 1/2 cup of melted salted butter + 1 cup of canola oil for good flavor without breaking the bank. I wasn’t trying to be super healthy, obviously. My MIL uses coconut oil. Feel free to mix and match as you like.)
- 2 cups brown sugar (again, if I’m making this granola I’m not trying to be healthy)
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon salt (can decrease this to 2 teaspoons; I like mine on the salty side and always eat it with milk)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon maple extract
- 6 ounces mini semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
Whisk the wet ingredients together. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir until everything is homogenous. (A very large bowl and a very large spoon make this much easier!)
Spread onto 2 half sheet trays and bake at 325* for 20 minutes. Stir, switch out the pans on the oven racks for even baking, and bake for another 20 minutes. Stir again. If the granola appears fairly dry and golden brown, you’re done. If it still looks wet keep baking at 10 minute intervals, stirring after each interval, until it’s dry. (It will continue to dry out as it cools.) I usually bake for 20, 20, 10.
Take the granola out of the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. Stir the granola a bit to create some chocolatey clumps of goodness. Let the granola cool completely before transferring to an airtight container.
To create cute granola gift bags, I used the “giant” 12 inch tall brown paper lunch bags from Walmart, drew festive designs with metallic Sharpies, and filled them half full of granola. I folded the top of the bag over twice and stapled it. Then I stapled the middle of a length of red and white striped ribbon along with the corner of a gift tag to the top of each bag before tying the ribbon into a bow. CLICK HERE for some printable gift tags and CLICK HERE for some printable recipe cards with this granola recipe in case your friends ask for it or you want to provide ingredients for allergy reasons.
Free printables!
Print these on cardstock and cut them apart with a paper cutter to add a special little touch to your bags of gifted granola!
RECIPE CARDS – landscape, standard 8.5 x 11 paper, double sided if you want a cool Christmas pattern on the back of the cards
GIFT TAGS – portrait, standard 8.5 x 11 paper, one sided
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