Homemade muesli bars

Serves:

Ingredients

• ½ cup (125ml) honey
• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 125g butter
• 3 cups rolled oats (see note for GF)
• 1 cup rice bubbles
• 1 cup sultanas
• ½ cup chopped apricots or dates or choc chips
• ½ cup desiccated coconut
• ¼ cup pepitas (pumpkin seed kernels), sunflower or sesame seeds

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Grease and line a slice tray (mine is 31 cm x 22cm) with baking paper.

Combine honey, sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

Cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until butter melts and sugar dissolves.

Bring to the boil and cook for 2 minutes or until syrup thickens slightly.

Remove from heat.

Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

Pour over the hot syrup and stir to combine.

Spoon into prepared pan and press firmly to make sure the mixture will stick together.

I wet my fingers with a bit of cold water and press the top to get a smooth finish.

Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Cool and then refrigerate until well chilled and cut into 24 slices (about 2cm x 6cm).

Notes:

• To make these muesli bars gluten free, use 2 cups of crushed cornflakes and 2 cups of rice bubbles.
• The mixture has a total of 1½ cups of dried fruit – use whatever combination you or your kids prefer.
• I have to put some obvious choc-chips on the top so my son will tolerate the sultanas.
• And let’s not mention the sunflower seeds.
• You could use half honey, half smooth peanut butter in the ‘syrup’ or add nuts to the mixture, but as most schools are nut-free now I have omitted these from the basic mix.
• Recipe created by Melissa Hughes for Kidspot.

Serving Suggestions

Note