Monday, April 26, 2010

Homemade Muesli Bars

Homemade Muesli Bars
Home Cooking



It's been a million years since I blogged (slight exaggeration of 2-3 weeks) and the reasons are as follows:
  • constant sleepiness
  • laziness
  • unwillingness to write about muesli bars that I made over a month ago while I was in a healthy food phase (lasted all of 3 days)
  • not in the mood
And the list goes on. Ah well, back in business.



So, I went through a health food phase. I bought 2 boxes of muesli (as mentioned previously in my muesli bread post), CSR low GI sugar, avocado spread, trail mix and dried fruit salad. I thought I'd be able to combine it all into an amazing super snack food: fruit and nut muesli bars.

Dry component of my muesli bars

After a brief internet trawl, I surmised that you basically have your 'dry' component which could be anything really: muesli, nuts, chopped dry fruit, seeds, chocolate chips... whatever... and you also have your 'wet' component which is butter and some kind of syrup.

When I made mine, I combined my muesli, trail mix, LSA and protein powder for dry and used the avocado spread, CSR low GI sugar, water and a bit of golden treacle syrup to make the wet.

Cooking the syrup

The syrup is ready when it forms a ball when you drop it into cold water

You sort of have to fiddle around with the quantities. I think I had too much dry for the amount of wet so it didn't hold together that well. How 'sticky' you make the wet component will also determine whether or not it sets hard or soft. Mine set a bit too soft for my liking.

My muesli mix - too dry

In the tray ready to set

After you mixed the wet and dry, press into a baking-paper lined tray, fridge-set and cut. I'm not going to include a specific recipe for the reasons that it's so open to your own preferences and besides, my formula/proportions didn't work out ideally.


I thought mine were too soft so I popped them in the oven to toast (that's supposed to make them more crunchy rather than chewy). It didn't help much so I put them in the fridge and that did actually set them though obviously they softened back up after returned to room temperature.


In summary, I was surprised at how relatively simple it is to make your own muesli bar at home but it seems impossible to do it without butter/sugar to hold all the good stuff together. You do have the option of altering what your muesli bar contains which is nice when you're trying to maintain or reduce intake of a specific ingredient.

At the end of the day I'm probably more inclined to just buy my own muesli bars but nonetheless, it's a fun option for you to play with.

1 comment:

  1. Hi- I just discovered your blog! I am a Brisbane based food Blogger too - there are now a little group of us ( I haven't been blogging as long as you) but sometimes we go out for blogger dinners etc! Anyway, would love for you to come to the next one if you are keen. Are you on twitter? Check out my blog and message me if you are interested in coming to the dinner. Gastronomy gal Twitter: @gastronomygal

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