Protein Granola, Baked at Home
Oats, protein powder, peanut butter, and syrup baked into clusters you carry loose and eat by the handful.
- calories
- 300
- weight
- 2.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 136
- 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
- Thru-hike
- Day hike
- Bikepacking
- Car camping
- Vegetarian
- Eat in the bag
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Rolled oats | 2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Protein powder | 1/2 cup | vanilla whey or a plant blend |
| Peanut butter | 1/3 cup | |
| Maple syrup | 1/4 cup | |
| Dried fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips | 1 cup | optional, stirred in after baking |
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp per serving | optional, only if you want it as cereal |
Method
- At home: stir the oats, protein powder, peanut butter, and syrup together until no dry powder is left. It will be stiff and sandy, not pourable.
- Press it onto a parchment-lined sheet in a thin even layer. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes, stirring once at the halfway mark.
- Stir it again as soon as it comes out, then leave it alone until fully cool. It crisps as it cools, not in the oven.
- Break it up and fold in the dried fruit, nuts, or chips.
- In camp: eat it dry out of the bag. For cereal, add the milk powder to the bag and pour in about 150 ml of cold water.
This is home-prep, not camp cooking. You bake it in a kitchen oven before the trip and then carry it dry, which is why it costs no fuel and no water on the trail. The syrup and peanut butter are the binder: they coat the oats so the mix holds together in clusters instead of powdering into loose oatmeal in your pack.
Protein powder is doing the work that would otherwise take dairy. Half a cup across a batch gets each serving to around 13 grams without anything that needs a cooler. The original serves this over yogurt, which is not a trail option, so the milk powder is here instead if you want something wetter than a handful of clusters.
One note on tags: it is vegetarian as written, but whey protein powder makes it not dairy-free, and peanut butter makes it not nut-free. The swaps in the variations fix both.
Packing
Cool it completely before bagging or the trapped steam will turn it soft in a day. Divide into eight bags of roughly a cup each, or carry the batch in one bag and eat by feel. Chocolate chips melt above about 85°F, so leave them out for hot trips.
Variations
- Swap the peanut butter for sunflower seed butter to make it nut-free.
- Use a plant protein powder and it becomes vegan and dairy-free, assuming the add-ins are too.
- Add 2 tbsp of coconut oil to the mix for more calories per ounce.
https://mealswithmaria.site/protein-granola-recipe