Buckwheat Groat Trail Granola
Toasted groats, oats, and seeds baked into clusters that survive a pack.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 3 oz
- cal / oz
- 173
- protein
- 13 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Snack
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Day hike
- Thru-hike
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Eat in the bag
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Raw buckwheat groats | 1 1/2 cups | not toasted kasha, it burns |
|---|---|---|
| Jumbo rolled oats | 2 cups | large flakes cluster better than quick oats |
| Pumpkin seeds | 1 cup | |
| Flaked almonds | 3/4 cup | |
| Virgin coconut oil | 1/3 cup | melted |
| Maple syrup or honey | 1/2 cup | |
| Ground cinnamon | 2 tsp | |
| Sea salt | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- At home: heat the oven to 300F and line a sheet pan with parchment.
- Stir the groats, oats, pumpkin seeds, almonds, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl.
- Melt the coconut oil, whisk in the syrup, and pour it over the dry mix. Turn it until every flake looks wet. Dry patches never cluster.
- Press the mix flat on the pan. Pack it down hard with the back of a spoon.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes, turning the pan once at the halfway point but not stirring the granola.
- Let it cool on the pan without touching it. It hardens as it cools. Break it into slabs, not crumbs.
- In camp: eat it dry from the bag, or pour cold water over powdered milk in a mug and spoon the granola in.
Buckwheat groats are seeds, not wheat, and they bake into something much harder than an oat flake. That is the point. Commercial granola turns to dust after two days of being sat on; a slab built around groats and pumpkin seeds breaks into chunks instead of powder.
The two rules are press and wait. Packing the mix flat before it goes in the oven is what fuses it, and stirring mid-bake undoes that. Coconut oil sets solid at cool temperatures, which helps the clusters hold, but it also means the pan needs to cool all the way before you touch it. Honey instead of maple syrup works the same and drops the vegan claim, which is why there is no vegan tag here either way.
Packing
Store the cooled slabs in a rigid jar at home and portion into 3 oz bags before a trip. Bags crush; keep the big pieces at the top and the dust ends up as your last serving.
Variations
- Add a half cup of dried cranberries or chopped dates after baking, never before, or they turn to charcoal.
- Swap the almonds for sunflower seeds to make it nut-free.
- Powdered whole milk packed in a separate bag turns a snack into a sit-down breakfast.
https://www.baldhiker.com/homemade-buckwheat-granola-recipe