A couple of months ago, I started hunting around for a muesli bar
/ slice recipe after tasting one at Sonya’s and discovering my daughter liked it. However that recipe contained dairy, so below is my version of a “whole foods” muesli slice that doesn’t contain dairy or wheat (actually, I cut out the flour completely).
/ slice recipe after tasting one at Sonya’s and discovering my daughter liked it. However that recipe contained dairy, so below is my version of a “whole foods” muesli slice that doesn’t contain dairy or wheat (actually, I cut out the flour completely).Ingredients
2 cups organic rolled oats
½ cup desiccated coconut
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup honey (or maple syrup)
2 eggs (preferably organic) lightly beaten
1/3 cup olive oil (you could also use coconut oil if you like)
½ cup sultanas (or other fruit eg dried super berries)
Method
1. Heat the olive oil and honey and stir until combined (it will begin to froth.
2. In a bowl, add the dry ingredients: oats, coconut, sesame seeds, sultanas.
3. Add the olive oil and honey to the dry ingredients until all ingredients are mixed.
4. Add the lightly beaten egg and stir through the muesli mix.
5. Prepare an oven dish (I use a 10” square cake tin lined with grease-proof paper). Squash the mix out so that it reaches the edges and is about 1-1.5 cm thick.
6. Bake at 180 degrees C for 30-40 minutes.
7. Once cooked, leave it to cool (either just removing it from the cake tin and transferring to a chopping board to stand or transferring to an airing rack if you have one) for 10 minutes before slicing (as it may crumble).
Serves: ~9 small slices or 6 large slices.
Preparation time: 15 minutes for the mix and up to 50 minutes for cooking and cooling.
This recipe has no added: wheat, dairy, soy or peanuts however technically coconut is a tree nut, so please check all ingredients are suitable for your dietary requirements if preparing this for someone with a food allergy.This recipe contains eggs and sesame seeds and gluten and tree nuts (coconut).
How to alter this recipe
- If you are making muesli for someone with a gluten allergy, then replace the oats with either gluten free puffed rice or cornflakes (check the labels on the box, don’t assume that the conventional brands are suitable as they are often produced on equipment that processes other allergens, and also the additives (preservatives etc) can be derived from allergenic sources. Another alternative is using polenta (recipe to come).
- If you are making this recipe for someone with a peanut or tree nut allergy (eg. almonds, walnuts, pistachio etc.) then check if they are ok with coconut and sesame seeds (and all the other ingredients)(and check that the ingredients you source aren’t processed on equipment that also processes nuts) first. You can omit the sesame seeds and coconut and if you are looking for some crunch, add some suitable cornflakes.
- If you can tolerate nuts and seeds, and you would like some variety in texture then you could replace the sesame seeds using a mix of other nutritious nuts and seeds: eg. chia, pepita, sunflower seeds or almond, brazil, walnut for different nuts.
- If you are unable to tolerate eggs you could try replacing the egg in the recipe with 1 mashed banana. In vegan cooking 1/2 a banana is sometimes used in place of 1 egg, so that is the ratio I would begin with, but if you feel the mix needs more, add more)
- I originally added the eggs to the recipe to bind the ingredients together and to replace the huge amount of butter (~175g) which was in it. Another alternative could be to use a butter alternative like cacao butter (~60 g)(melt first as cacao butter is very hard) with olive oil (1/3 cup) (I’m currently cooking with a raw organic cacao butter which is available from health food stores or organic produce stores).
- If you don’t like sultanas or are looking for an alternative, some other ideas are dried cranberries, or super antioxidant berry mix which can be an interesting addition and can increase the antioxidant content of the muesli (though again, you need to check the allergen information to ensure the product is suitable for you) or alternatively chopped prunes could be added, which may not just be beneficial for bowel regularity, but your bones as well according to a recent seminar I attended!
If you haven’t read them yet, please check out our articles on the differences between allergies and intolerances and food labels.
