March 18, 2008: More muesli

I first wrote about making my own muesli at home more than a year ago. It came as no surprise to me that I would lose interest in it, and in particular the time required once every week or two to hover around the oven for an hour at a stretch while it cooked. But I came back to it a couple of months ago and have hit on a winning formula, which I'm going to note down here for future reference. After all, I am going to get sick of all that oven-hovering again one day and forget the process while I'm at it.

If you're interested in trying this recipe, be warned that it's not sweet granola by any stretch. It's golden and crunchy when I get the oven times right, but I've shied away from using any oil or strong sweeteners for my daily breakfast. I find that some canned fruit does that job nicely - all I'm after here is that filling nutty crunch. If you like dried fruit don't bake it at all, just stir it into the cooled toasted muesli mix.

The muesli pictured above uses hazelnuts and pepitas. This breakfast is proving to be an excellent way to use up stray half-packets of nuts and seeds that I've bought for other recipes.

Muesli

4 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups fruit juice (I usually use the juice from a jar of fruit, strained)
1 teaspoon of ground spice (optional)
1 cup nuts, chopped
1/4 cup seeds

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. Stir together the rolled oats and juice in a bowl and allow them to stand for 10-15 minutes, until the oats have soaked up all the liquid.

Spread the oats evenly over a clean baking tray and sprinkle over the spices if you're using them. The oats need to be baked for about 45 minutes in total. Take them out of the oven every ten minutes to stir them around, break up the clumps and ensure they're not sticking to the tray. At the 30 minute mark, stir in the nuts. At the 40 minute mark, stir in the seeds.

The muesli should be golden brown with quite some crunch but a small amount of chew to it. Serve it sprinkled over fruit and yoghurt.