This is an old family recipe provided by Steve and his family. Since he has let us in on the art of muesli making, we are all into it. I find myself making it to give away more than keeping it for ourselves, so it makes a great gift idea.

It is also good used as sprinkles on top of a dessert of berries, ice-cream, yogurt and marshmallows. Keep the serving size to about one third cup as it is energy dense so a little goes a long way. We like it best with milk, yogurt and fruit. What a way to start the day.

The whole cooking process takes about an hour and quantity’s are approximates. The recipe makes a large batch – more than enough to share.

This recipe is cooked in stages, so please read the instructions before you start.

You will need:

• 4 – 6 cups whole-grain oats (old fashioned oats) I use a 1 kilo (2 lb) bag of Harraways
• pinch of salt
• 2 tsp dried cinnamon
• 1½ cups mixed seeds—pumpkin, sunflower, sesame
• 1½ – 2 cups mixed raw nuts — walnuts, almonds, pecans, brazil’s, hazels, cashews etc.
• 1 cup thread or flaked coconut (or a combo of both)
• 1 cup popped rice – I use the unsweetened organic type – not rice bubbles 🙂
• 1 cup dried fruit medley finely chopped— apricots, pears, peaches, currants, raisins, paw-paw, sultanas, banana, nectarines  or a combo of your favorite dried fruit
• ¼–½ cup oil – we use grape seed. The oil needs to be light and tasteless.
• ¼–½ cup honey

Method:

Put oats in a large oven proof dish such as a meat dish. Sprinkle in the salt and cinnamon and stir. Bake slowly at 175° C (340°F), stirring every so often to ensure they don’t burn. If you are cooking with fan bake, take the temp down a bit.

Put the larger seeds (pumpkin) into the food processor and give them a quick few bursts to cut them down to size. Mix with the smaller seeds and once the oats have been cooking for 30 minutes, add the seeds and stir to combine.

Chop the larger nuts — I find it is best to do this by hand so you don’t get an overly fine end result. I also purchase almonds both sliced and slivered to save time on chopping. At the 45 minute stage add the chopped nuts and the puffed rice. If I’m using cashews and macadamia nuts, I leave them whole.

At the 50 minute stage add the coconut.

Take out of the oven after 1 hour and add the dried fruit. (Chop larger fruit into smaller pieces with kitchen scissors). You guessed it — stir to combine.

Warm the honey and oil in a small saucepan just until the honey has melted but do not boil.

Slowly pour over muesli and mix well to combine. Mix the batch several times throughout the next hour to prevent sticking. This is an important step so you don’t get clumps of muesli.

When cool, feel free to add some yogurt coated raisins or cranberries if you really want to be naughty, and store in a large airtight glass jar.

Serve with yogurt, milk, and fresh fruit.