Thursday 9 May 2013

muesli bar quest




I've lost count of the number of muesli bar recipes I have tried over the years. Tired of the store bought ones - expensive and too sweet. Or lack of diversity causing the kids to become bored and not want to eat them at all. But they are just such a simple and easy snack, young or old, I must continue my quest to find a homemade muesli bar that my kids will love. I will not wave the white flag!

Last week I tried another one that has been hiding in my recipe book for goodness knows how long, torn from a waiting room New Idea. Success with the kids? No. Success with the husband? No. But me, myself and I ate the whole batch - rather quickly too, I might add. So they can't be bad, right? I have taste buds - don't I? Please make these and confirm I have taste buds.

The difference I found with these compared to other recipes I have tried, is that this recipe actually tasted of the ingredients - not the ingredients masked by the flavour of butter and honey, glueing the ingredients together. I could taste the oats, sultanas, apricots, pepitas.. and I really enjoyed the omission of honey and addition of milk! There was such a subtle milky flavour holding the ingredients together. I think the pepitas were the winner for me, I just love them.

Muesli Fruit Oat Bars (sort of a ridiculous name for them but clearly New Idea thought it was great..)

2 Weet-Bix, crushed
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup sultanas
1/3 cup chopped soft and juicy apricots (I used soft, plump and juiceless DRIED apricots and they worked beautifully)
1/3 cup pepitas
1/4 cup caster sugar (I used brown sugar - you could easily make this 1/3 cup or leave it out completely if you're a health nut)
1/4 cup plain flour
75g unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten

// Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
// Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin, extending paper above pan edges to make it easy to lift out later.
// Place weet-bix, oats, sultanas, apricots, pepitas, sugar and flour in a large bowl and stir to combine.
// Add butter, milk and egg and stir to combine.
// Pour into pan and spread evenly.
// Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden and cooked. Stand in pan for 10 minutes before lifting out to cool on wire rack.
// Cut into 12 even bars. Or 6 - because if you eat them like I did, you can't eat just one at a time.

Bars can be stored in an airtight container for up to five days (if they last that long).

So go forth and bake! And please come back and tell me my taste buds have not died. No, really. I need to know if others like this?!

If you've got amazing muesli bar recipes in your possession, please share! And no, I do not own a Thermomix.

4 comments:

  1. Great recipe, I'm definitely going to try these, look fab!

    Harri

    at-rubik.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes! Thank you!
    I too refuse to buy the grocery store bars.
    And everyone that I have tried to make has been exactly as you described...just tasting of honey. And while that is nice, I would love to have muesli bars that actually taste like muesli.
    I will be trying these for sure!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, they look good. I found a Bill Granger one a while ago that I remember going down well with everyone. I'll have to track it down again, as of course I didn't write it down! x

    ReplyDelete
  4. My grandma used to make some that had some that were yummy, I think they had some peanut butter in them. Ill get the recipe off my mum and report back :)

    ReplyDelete

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