MUESLI
A CRUNCHY BREAKFAST TREAT.
I serve this muesli as part of our breakfast buffet at Das Helwig Haus B&B and all our guests rave about it. The basic recipe was given to me about 1973 by a Mrs. Newton who was then my neighbour in the town of Dalby.
I’ve taken the recipe a step further by growing the nuts and fruits that make it so special. I’ve gone through my photo file to extract views that will best illustrate the process of creating this particular muesli.
Fresh sun ripened figs.
However, you can of course buy nuts and dried fruits to add to your mixture.Apart from the sultanas, the three ingredients I like to add are fruit leather made from persimmons, dried figs and pecan nuts, all of which we produce in our own garden.
Here you see a French Wwoofer girl cuddling our cat Patches while ripening persimmons hang like Christmas decorations on a small Nightingale persimmon tree. Patches is never far from the action and we always say she is supervising the workers.
Preparing figs for drying.
Dried figs on racks.
The figs must be split prior to drying in a dehydrator for approximately twelve hours.The persimmon fruit is placed in a blender with a little sugar and reduced to a pulp. Greaseproof paper is laid over the mesh screens of the dehydrator and the fruit pulp spread across it. Again after approximately twelve hours the paper can be peeled off the fruit leather, which is then cut into narrow strips with kitchen scissors. Like the nuts and figs, the dry pieces of fruit leather can be stored in airtight jars until required. The nuts are broken into half the fruit leather cut into squares and the figs quartered
MUESLI
1kg oats
4 cups shredded coconut
2 cups sesame seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
4 cups wheatgerm
1 cup oil
1 spoon salt
500g brown sugar
Combine all ingredients. Place on trays and brown in the oven stirring occasionally.
Cool and add 2 cups sultanas plus other dried fruit and nuts.
* In the USA and Canada sultanas are usually called raisins, which I discovered when my friend Margaret in Ontario baked a Raisin Pie.
