Muesli?

[NotQuiteCockney]

I'm thinking of making my own muesli. I have ideas for ingredients.

What I want to know is, do I just mix it all together? Is there anything I can do to the oats to make them more digestible, without soaking? (I plan to not use wheat, just oats, and maybe other grain flakes, if I can find any.)

roast them? (maybe glaze with a bit of honey first)
Using cornflakes lightens it up.
Also nice: pumpkin seeds.

That makes sense. I was thinking of using maple syrup, rather than honey.

Do I roast all of it? Or just the oats? How do I make sure all the flakes get a tiny bit of honey or maple syrup?

My planned ingredients are:

• oat flakes
• maybe corn flakes? that sounds good.
• dried cranberries/blueberries
• coconut
• pumpkin seeds
• flax seeds maybe? Some other seed, certainly
• flaked almonds.
• hazlenuts maybe?

Do you make your own?

I bought some lovely muesli at an organic fair thing yesterday, but at an outrageous price. And I'm liking the Pertwood muesli, but the oat flakes aren't roasted, I think, so are really really quite chewy.

I cheat and buy a basic crunchy muesli with roasted honey oats and then add extras like pumpkin seeds and dried fruit, works out cheaper than luxury muesli without the hassle.

I just mix oats, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, quinoa flakes, rice flakes and raisins and eat them raw, NQC - you don't really need any extra sweeteners if you add fresh fruit IMO. But I have got a lovely recipe for a baked muesli (what they call granola in the US), would you like it?

My system is:

• organic oats (ones that say they only need a couple of minutes to make porridge seem to be more digestible - I guess they've probably been pre-soaked) - baked in the oven for 20 mins at 180 (stir around half-way through so they're done evenly);
• loads of dried fruit - the "berries and cherries" mix from Waitrose, apple rings, apricots, figs, whatever I can find - blitzed in a food processor so it makes handfuls of mini-chopped-up gunge;
• tip warm oats into gunge & rub together (bit like rubbing butter into flour when making pastry);
• add raisins and some AllBran, and a kind of blessing of brown sugar - this last bit done ceremonially in front of the children;
• eat with stewed apple.

We do this as a school breakfast as it seems to keep hunger pangs at bay (also seems to ward off constipation!)

sorry, 'lost' this thread.
Don't make my own atm - having an un-muesli phase.
I would just roast the oats.
Dried cranberries/blueberries - yummy! I love raisins in museli. Am not a huge nut fan.

Oooh, loads of ideas, thanks!

Yes, please, I would like a recipe for a baked muesli.

LittleB, I am a bit tempted to do that but a) there's generally too much sugar in those and b) they don't come organic, do they? I do plan to get most/all the sugar from the fruit.

Bink, that sounds good. We have a big bag of organic all-bran type stuff in the house at the moment, as DS1 wanted it, and how could I say no? But he's not really eating it much, shocker.

3 cups oats
1 cup wheatgerm
1/4 cup linseed
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
4 tbsp ground almonds
1 tbsp barley malt
1 tbsp molasses (dissolve this and the barley malt in a little hot water otherwise it is too sticky)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups raisins
Half cup dessicated coconut

Combine barley malt, molasses, oil, vanilla and cinnamon in a bowl. Mix all else except raisins and coconut in another bowl. Mix wet with dry. Stir well until all coated. Spread onto 2 baking trays and bake at 180 / gm 4 for 20 mins, stirring after 10 mins.
Add raisins and coconut and allow to cool. Place in airtight tin or jar in the fridge. Serve with milk as usual.

I think it's lovely and ds adores making it, although it is a little on the crunchy side for him. It's from "Optimum Nutrition for Babies and Young Children". Just found this in the same book:

"cover the oats with filtered water and soak overnight to halp the starches creak down into sugars. In the morning the mixture should be really gooey, not waterlogged".

That's for use with oat flakes.

LOL that should be "break down" not creak

We just grind up the oats in the food processor, add raisins, nuts and fresh apple pieces, and add milk straight before serving.

I did one last week which I've really enjoyed.

2 cups of organic oats
1/2 cup chopped nuts (almonds pecans brazils)
1/2 cup mixed seeds
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp mixed spice

mix and toast in oven at 180 until golden

then mix in dried cranberries and sultanas

I've been eating it with yoghurt as I don't like milk
I made up the recipe and I think it's trial and error really to find the combination you like best

Blimey you lot make really complicated recipes

I get a big ice-cream tub, and fill it with
1/3 organic porridge oats (quick cook seem to work best)
1/3 crispy brown rice cereal (a bit like rice crispies with out the additives)
1/3 fruit and nuts - usually a pack of ASDA extra special fruit mix with everything from cranberries to raisins and blueberries, pack of mixed luxury nuts, 1/2 pack sunflower seeds, 1/2 pack pumpkin seeds.

This lasts ages, once milk goes on usually only needs a couple of minutes to soak it up.

I buy "muesli base" from Holland & Barratt which has a good mixture of flakes in

I'm trying this finally, using a variation on FaZ's recipe. (Leaving out the things I don't have, basically.)

Smells good.

A german friend was talking about this grated apple business, as was a website I found.

I really just want cereal I can had milk to whenever, without having to work out, the night before, how much I'll want (or the boys will want!).

Isn't the original muesli a sort of damp affair (ie steeped in liquid night before)?

I go to the little health food shop near s,buy whatever I fancy and mix it all together.
Cheap,tasty and delicious.

I tend to have...

oats
rye
linseed
wheatgerm
mixed vine fruit
dried figs and apricots
walnuts,hazelnuts,brazilnuts
oat bran
pine nuts,pumpkin seeds,sunflower seed

I spoon it into a bowl the night before and have it for b/fast every day without fail with plain yoghurt and some fresh or stewed fruit.

(God,I'm exciting....)

I had pretty much FaZ's recipe, only no wheatgerm, no sesame seeds, no ground almonds, no barley malt. Added pumpkin seeds, hazlenuts, and substituted dried cranberries for raisins. Oh, and I just made a half-batch, which is good, as I think I over-cooked it. (I never time anything, ever, and anyway, it was in a deep small dish, so would need more cooking time.)

Not much work, compared to the ice cream I made today, so will no doubt do it again, with different ingredients.

Glad you liked it NQC, I find it a real winner when ds demands we 'cook something' as it involves potentially infinite amounts of mixing

i'm going to make some with oats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pistachios & hazelnuts all dry-roasted in the oven. then add dried cranberries, blueberries, cherries & apricots. eat with yoghurt. i'm not sure how healthy it's going to be, but should be yummy.

DS1 "helped" me make semi-freddo (ice cream, more or less) yesterday, and didn't enjoy the process much, as mostly I wouldn't let him do much ... will have to get him involved in muesli next time. Might get him helping with oatmeal biscuits, or refried beans, over the next few days.

Ok, I made a half-batch, following FaZ's instructions. It's now mostly gone. Both DSes are absolutely mad for the stuff.

I think over-cooking it helped, actually, as the oats are now not at all chewy and impossible.