How about posting the recipe you use so we can take a look at it and make some recommendations from there.

Dry ingredients are oatmeal and various nuts, wet are oil, honey, and applesauce. And we use enough of the wet to lightly but thoroughly coat the dry.

What clump-enhancing ingredient are we missing? We suspect that increasing the honey would be most likely to get the effect we want, but that would make it too sweet.

Would adding some juice or water help?
How about if we let it sit longer before baking?
Maybe we need to press it together each time after we stir it?

I would try omitting the applesauce.

weed30 suggested omitting the applesauce.

Can you say something about why you suggest that?

I would think in order for it to clump you need to use sticky ingredients. Also, it could be that the clumping achieved in boxed cereal granola is from some kind of chemistry set the manufacturers have on hand in their laboratory - very possibly high fructose corn syrup or something along that line.

Here's a base recipe I use, but I vary it some nearly every time I make it, depending one which nuts I have on hand, and how much honey or whatever ingredients I have on hand when I make it. I've never paid attention to whether it clumps or not - probably not much, but that's not something I've cared about. It is a tasty granola, though. It's from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone.

6 cups flaked or rolled grains (I use oatmeal)
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup wheat germ
1 teasoon grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Salt
1 cup raisins (I omit these simply because I don't like raisins)
1/2 cup safflower or canola oil
3/4 cup honey, golden syrup, or maple syrup (I use a combination of honey and molasses, and usually only use about a half cup total - not big on sweet)

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Toss the dry ingredients but not the raisins together, then add the oil and sweetener and toss again to coat them thoroughly. Spread the mixture on two sheet pans and bake until golden, turning every 10 minutes, add the raisins and let cool. As the granola cools, it will lose its stickiness and become crunchy. Store in a tightly covered jar.

One other note from me - I set the oven a little cooler, because I find the granola browns too fast at 300 degrees. Maybe it's the way my oven is. I also like my cookie sheets with parchment paper - it makes clean up a whole lot easier, and it makes it so much easier to put the finished granola into my container - I just roll the parchment into a funnel and pour it into the container.

Sally

I make gargengrl's Maple Granola and I love it, but it doesn't clump.

MAPLE GRANOLA (from gardengrl)

7 cups thick oat flakes (rolled oats), uncooked
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup almonds, sliced or broken up
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped or broken up
1 cup sunflower seeds, raw or toasted
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup raisins
additional dried fruit/nuts as desired
In a very large bowl, combine the oats, coconut, wheat germ, nuts, seeds and salt. Mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, maple syrup and vanilla. Pour over dry mixture in bowl, stirring and tossing till everything is very well combined (your bare hands are the best tools for this step).

Spread granola on a couple of large, ungreased baking sheets. Bake in a preheated 250°F oven for 2 hours, tossing mixture every 15 minutes or so. Remove pans from oven and cool completely. Transfer granola to a large bowl, and mix in raisins and any additional dried fruit desired -- dates, figs, currants, dried cranberries or blueberries, etc. Store in a tightly closed container at room temperature.

It seems like it has about the same ingredients as yours, without the applesauce, I think it may have to do with the ratio of wet ingredients to dry.

Here all this time I was trying to make the granola NOT clump, so I'm kind of interested in how this goes.

Annie

We make it at work, and I also looked at a few online recipes. The major difference I saw was none of the recipes use applesauce, just oil or butter and honey. Some also use brown sugar. Another tip I read for getting good clumping granola was to use quick oats rather than long cooking oats, or if you really prefer long cooking oats, put them in the food processor for a quick spin. The texture would change though, not sure I'd like that. Yet another tip was to cook at a lower temp for longer, and to press the mixture into the pan. I guess then you could flip it in hunks rather than stirring it.

I suspect that the applesauce is too much water without any real stickiness. Other than flavor, it would take away from the texture instead of adding to it. If you like apples, chop some dried apples into your mixture. But no, I think the applesauce is working against you.

Actually, it had the same problem in versions without applesauce.

I did some googling and have found several promising hints.

leaveswave:

So, the hints are...?

Joe

I have tried applesauce but it didn't work as well as bananas. I used about two cups of mashed bananas for 5 - 6 cups of rolled oats. It usually works pretty well.

I first blend the bananas with 2 TBSP of honey, 2 TBSP hot water, and 2 TBSP powdered milk, in my blender. In a large bowl, I combine the oats, a bit of cinnamon, 2 tsp of brown sugar, 2 TBSP whole flax, 2 TBSP ground flax, 2 TBSP sesame seeds, 2 TBSP wheat bran, and a few handfuls of unsweetened coconut flakes. Then I pour the banana mixture into the large bowl and stir until all the oats are coated evenly. Then I spread the mixture in a lined cookie sheet, bake in oven at 300F for 60 minutes, stir every 15 - 20 minutes. Once the granola is cooled, I add seeds, nuts, dried fruits such as raisins or dates, even some store bought bran flakes into it. My husband used to eat the store bought granola. Since I start making my own low fat granola, he never looks back.

My favorite granola recipe tells how to make larger clumps. After mixing everything together it says, "More water can be added to make bigger crumbs." (As written, the recipe calls for 1/2 cup water.) Other ingredients are similar to yours except for the applesauce.

It works like a charm, at least in this recipe -- just add a bit more water and you can make clumps as large as you like before it goes into the oven.

Are you using your hands? You need to clump it together with your hands. Also, applesauce, water? or juice? definitely are a no-no unless you want it soggy.
Use some honey AND some brown sugar together, and don't use too much dry ingredients.