Still have leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving? We use ours to make the most delicious cranberry yogurt parfaits with homemade chewy granola and I’m sharing the recipe!
I love fruit and jam swirled into yogurt. There’s something about the tart creaminess of yogurt paired with sweet fruit that seems just perfect in my breakfast book.
Bonus: this is such a simple and creative way to use leftover cranberry sauce after Thanksgiving and Christmas. (You can also check out these fan-favorite and super easy to make cranberry brie bites using leftover cranberry sauce!)
To Make Your Own Cranberry Yogurt Parfaits:
Start with a creamy yogurt base. We love using greek yogurt in our breakfast yogurt parfaits.
After that, we top our yogurt with homemade granola. I’m sharing our all-time favorite homemade chewy granola recipe below, including the ultimate easy hack for perfectly chewy granola every time.
Use Up That Leftover Cranberry Sauce!
I typically add in fresh fruit, jam, or honey to my yogurt parfait, and cranberry sauce turns out to be such a yummy sweet substitution in that morning yogurt. Cranberry sauce is sweet, tart, and bursting with fresh cranberries; what’s not to love?
The combination of creamy yogurt, sweet and tart cranberry sauce, and chewy homemade granola is heavenly I tell you.
By the way, I made a super short video detailing the steps to make your own cranberry yogurt parfait on Instagram.
Homemade Chewy Granola
I’ve shared variations of this homemade chewy granola recipe before because it’s the granola recipe we use time and again. It’s absolutely perfect – chewy, crispy, totally customizable, and a real crowd-pleaser. It also makes a great gift over the holidays. (Make big batches and jar it up to hand out to teachers, neighbors, friends and family!)
See Also → 3 of Our Favorite Handmade Gifts to Give During the Holiday Season (Including Jars of Homemade Granola)
I also love the amount this classic granola recipe makes because the batch lasts us a good week or more when sealed in an airtight container or jar with a lid. We use our granola to top yogurt (obviously!), in cereal, and just to snack on any time of day. (Of course, sprinkled on top of yogurt is most definitely my favorite way to eat it!)
Make your own delicious cranberry yogurt parfaits for breakfast or brunch this week using leftover cranberry sauce. Not only is this the most delicious treat, the homemade granola and tart and sweet cranberry sauce really takes this recipe to the next level. For the Granola: Tips for Making Your Granola Extra Clumpy:
Cranberry Yogurt Parfaits (Using Leftover Cranberry Sauce!)
Ingredients
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Stir the oats, nuts, brown sugar, salt, oil, honey, and egg white** until well-coated.
3. Spread the wet granola mixture onto a sheet of parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet (the parchment paper really helps; everything is pretty sticky), and bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes, stirring at about 20 minutes. Everything should slowly bake up to a toasty crumbly texture.
4. Add any dried fruit after baking, while the mixture is still warm out of the oven. (Baking your granola with the fruit will make the fruit too dry and awkwardly crunchy.)
5. Let the granola cool completely on the pan, then break up and crumble your granola, and store in an airtight container.
For the Parfait:
To assemble the parfait: Start by putting yogurt in your bowl. Next, spread a layer of leftover cranberry sauce on the yogurt. Sprinkle as much homemade granola as you like over everything and then top with a little orange zest if you like the extra kick of citrus. Notes
**Add a beaten egg white — make sure it’s foamy and frothy — to your granola after you’ve mixed it all together and before putting it in the oven. The protein in the egg will help bind the oats together, creating those perfect clumps.
Once you’ve taken the cooked granola out of the oven, you'll want to resist the urge to break it up immediately. Once the granola is out, let it cool completely and then break the sheet into clusters once it's warm and not hot to the touch.