This granola recipe uses part of a can of pumpkin. When you’re trying to figure out what to do with the rest of it, check out our list of easy canned pumpkin recipes. There are ideas for everything from breakfast to dessert.

Pumpkin Granola Recipe

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Pumpkin Granola Ingredients:

You can get the full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card below.

• Oats – I use rolled oats because that’s what I usually have at home for other recipes, but you could use whatever type of oats you have.
• Nuts – I prefer walnuts because they have a really great texture even after you bake them. You can substitute almonds if you prefer those.
• Cinnamon sugar – This has a little bit of sweetness and spice. You could make your own cinnamon sugar, but I use the premade blend.
• Salt – A little salt helps to enhance all of the other flavors.
• Pumpkin pie spice – This is the blend of spices that usually goes in pumpkin pie. It usually contains nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. You can make your own blend, but using store-bought is easier.
• Oil – I prefer a neutral oil, like canola oil. That doesn’t impart any flavor to the granola allowing the flavors that you’re adding to really shine.
• Maple syrup – You want to use real maple syrup, not pancake syrup.
• Canned pumpkin – Use 100% pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling. They’re not the same thing.

How To Make Pumpkin Granola:

Preheat the oven to 340 F.

Measure the oats and put them in a large mixing bowl.

Chop the walnuts and add them to the bowl.

Add in the cinnamon sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.

Stir until the spices and sugar are evenly distributed amongst the oats.

You can taste one of the oats now. It won’t taste like much, and this will change with the addition of the maple syrup, but you can decide if you want to add more pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon sugar.

Heat the oil, maple syrup, and pumpkin in a small saucepan over medium-high heat.

Stir constantly until the ingredients start bubbling and everything is combined.

You want to really keep an eye on this and not walk away from the stove when this is cooking. The oil will want to stay separate from the other ingredients, but once it gets hot enough, they pretty much combine immediately.

At that point you want to take the pot off of the heat. You don’t want it to keep cooking because the natural sugars in the maple syrup could start to burn or caramelize.

Pour the pumpkin liquid on top of the ingredients in the bowl.

Stir quickly until everything is evenly coated.

You wanna work quickly with this. The liquid will start to cool quickly and will start to clump and you’ll end up with dry spots of oats.

Split the oat mixture in half and put each half on a silicone baking mat-lined cookie sheet.

Spread it out to a thin, even layer.

I like silicone baking mats because they’re reusable so that’s better for the earth and my budget. But, I only have one that fits my largest baking sheet, so I do one tray with a silicone baking mat and the other with parchment paper.

They both bake at the same rate, but I think the batch on the parchment paper cools down a little faster. That’s completely anecdotal, though.

Put the baking sheets in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes.

If you’re working on two separate racks, at the halfway point, you’ll want to rotate them 180° and move the one from the top rack to the bottom and vice versa.

Since the one on the bottom is closer to the heat, you want to move it or it’ll burn before the other baking sheet is ready.

Quick note: If you don’t have two large baking sheets, you can bake this in two batches.

Take the baking sheets out of the oven and slightly break the granola apart. If you like chunky granola, break it into large pieces and if you want smaller granola, break it into smaller pieces.

Let the granola cool about 20 minutes. It will harden as it sits.

Personally, I recommend that you take the granola off the baking sheets and either move the parchment paper to a wire cooling rack or a cold baking sheet to cool. If you leave it on the warm baking sheet, it’ll continue to cook from the baking sheet’s heat and may cause the granola to burn.

Once it’s cool, you can use it in your yogurt, ice cream, or just eat it as is.

Pumpkin Granola: Frequently Asked Questions

More Pumpkin Pie Spice Recipes:

If you bought a container of pumpkin pie spice for this and you’re wondering how else to use it, check out our list of pumpkin spice recipes. There are ideas for pancakes, muffins, and more.