One of the things that has been a bit annoying so far this month has been finding something good to eat for breakfast. We usually have cereal, but making my own Sultana Bran would be far too much effort for me to give it a go! I don't really want to have toast for breakfast, because then we use twice as much bread and I don't really have time to make a loaf a day...
My mum always made muesli growing up, but I've never tried it myself. I've been put off muesli in the last few years after going on a few tramps where breakfast was unappetising bland muesli with milk powder, which seemed to stick in the throat even more when I was faced with the prospect of walking uphill for a day. However I decided to face my fears and give homemade muesli a go - it seemed too easy to pass up the opportunity, and it's full of lots of energy to start the day with.
This recipe was given to me by my brother, who got it from my sister, who (if the story hasn't been lost in translation) got it from her partner, who got it from his grandma. You can correct me if I'm wrong!
The recipe turned out roughly ok, with a few hiccups that I will have to correct next time..... Firstly, I couldn't find any wheat germ at the organics shop - they have run out, apparently wheat germ only has a shelf life of 2 months, which raises some interesting questions about what they do to the stuff they sell in supermarkets. So no wheat germ. Secondly, I ran out of brown sugar - this wasn't a problem, I used a mixture of molasses sugar and white sugar. Thirdly (this is where it gets bad) I was adding sultanas, dried apricots and cashews, except that it didn't quite occur to me to add them AFTER I cooked the muesli. Hence the fruit in my muesli has an interesting "caramelised" flavour. Ed has been very polite about this so far - we'll see how this goes after a week of eating it.
Jenny's Muesli Recipe8 cups rolled oats
2 cups wheat germ
1 cup coconut
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup neutral oil (eg. canola, rice bran)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp mixed spice
1 cup milk
(optional - 1 cup oat bran, sunflower seeds, pumpking seeds, almonds, dried fruit)
Mix dry ingredients then add wet ingredients. Bake at 150C for 1 hour, stirring 3 or 4 times.
Add fruit, nuts etc. AFTER removing from the oven.
Looks great Jo, makes me hungry:) What sort of milk to do you add to it? Is it special non-supermarket, organic milk, or do you just nip to the dairy?
ReplyDeleteJust normal milk from our local (the trusty Quarry Store). I know a few people who get milk direct from local farmers - I'd try that except that I find full cream milk really gross....
ReplyDeleteAwesome work Jo you are so hardcore!
ReplyDeleteI want to try making the ice cream! I have just started making my own muesli and the good old Edmonds cookbook has a really good toasted muesli recipe (pretty much the same as yours ingredients wise) that I just changed a bit. I also was too impatient to bake it at 150 degrees so I grilled it in batches and it was faster. :)
Helen
This is fun stuff Jo, I've been caught out with the 'when do I add the fruit? thing too. Good to see you are into adapting to what you actually have. Other interesting additions - linseed, sesame seeds (best added latish). Have you discovered Leith Valley distributors yet? No where near Leith Valley oddly enough, but a great stockist of interesting products like locally grown Saffron, alligator meat and such like, all handily located close to the railway station...
ReplyDeleteMy dad is a home-muesli fiend.
ReplyDeleteHe tends to make it in bulk amounts, and with ridiculously expensive ingredients- including almonds.
Some members of my family have speculated that if my dad was to sell his muesli he would need to sell each 500 gram box for approximately $50 to turn a profit.
Full cream is the only way to drink milk, that was the hardest part of moving to town, was having to drink that water with white food colouring that town-folk call milk
close - sister's partner's friends grandma! you can make it with soy milk too, that works well. And I actually just got a recipe for homemade soy milk I can pass on.
ReplyDeleteI think you need to invest in a cow for all your milking needs. I will happily come to Dunedin for patting duties, more so in light of Cow 247's recent passing.
ReplyDelete