3.06.2012

guest post: make your own cereal

Today I have a guest post from the lovely Ada who is going to show you how to make your own breakfast cereal! Ada is a freelance writer living in the woods of northern Minnesota. She spends her free time knitting, gardening, and cooking. Visit her at her blog: Of Woods and Words.

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I think food should be a full sensory experience. Of course it should taste good, but it should also smell good, have a great texture and it should be pretty. Maybe that last requirement is why I have such a thing for putting food in jars.

Lately, I’ve been keeping a quart jar of homemade muesli on my counter for breakfast or a “pick-me-up” snack any time of the day. Muesli, a close cousin of granola, is quite common in Europe and never fails to remind me of time spent in English and Irish bed and breakfasts. I’ve been using my dehydrator to make granola for a year or so now, but as much as I like the granola, sometimes I’m not always up for the crunch-fest that is eating a bowl of granola or the hours of white noise that the dehydrator's motor makes while running. Muesli is just lightly toasted in the oven, so it doesn’t require nearly as much cooking time and is a much softer texture than granola.

I can't go down the cereal aisle at the grocery store without suffering sticker shock, so I'm happy to have developed an inexpensive muesli recipe. I also enjoy controlling exactly what’s in each batch. I usually just eat a bowl of muesli with some organic milk, but it's also yummy stirred into yogurt or used as a parfait topping.

The recipe is loosely based off of a Scandinavian Muesli recipe from Eating Well. Both my mother and I have taken turns adjusting it until it quite closely imitates the mueslis I remember so fondly from my travels. The recipe's vey flexible, so let your imagination and tastebuds dictate the make-up of your muesli batches.

The only uncommon ingredient in the mix is the rolled wheat flakes, which you should be able to find in the bulk section of any whole foods store. You could substitute rye flakes for the wheat flakes, if you're feeling particularly "crunchy," but I haven't tried that. Feel free to shake up what you use for dried fruit and nuts in the recipe; I think dates, apricots, cherries, blueberries and/or pecans would all be delicious additions. It's quite common for British muesli to have miniature corn flakes stirred into the mix, so you could throw a handful of those in when you stir in the raisins and brown sugar mixture.

Muesli
4 cups rolled oat
2 cups rolled wheat flakes
¼ cup flaked coconut
2/3 cup sliced almonds, chopped
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup raisins

Combine oats and wheat in a large roasting pan (such as two 9x13 pans or a brimmed pizza pan) and roast in a 350 degree oven for 8 – 9 minutes. Stir in coconut and almonds and return to oven for about 6 minutes. Meanwhile, combine brown sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Remove oat mixture from oven and stir in raisins and brown sugar mixture. Allow to cool completely and store in a cool, dry place.Yield: 8 cups.


looks delicious - can't wait to try it out! Thanks Ada!

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2 comments:

  1. Yum, I'm off to the shop to stock up on oats, thank you for sharing. X

    ReplyDelete
  2. This does look good! And so easy! I will definitely try it this week. :) Thanks for sharing.

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