Homemade Muesli - A Guide

Homemade muesli is quick and easy to prepare. Ready in less than 30 minutes and fully customisable: make several different flavoured batches up to keep breakfast healthy and exciting.

Holidays are a great time to pick up recipe inspiration for me. There’s nothing like coming across something to eat on holiday that you enjoy so much you know you have to recreate the recipe at home.

The food doesn't even have to be exotic. Just finding a different spin on something you eat regularly can be a fabulous find. 

During a weekend trip to Vienna, I found the inspiration for a delightful pineapple muesli at Corn n' Pops, a tiny neighbourhood breakfast bar. This motivated me to create this guide for making homemade muesli.

Why You Should Try This Recipe

Quite simply, homemade muesli is one of the easiest recipes around. It's totally customisable to your dietary requirements and it's virtually foolproof.

Homemade muesli offers many advantages over store bought:

• You get to pick your perfect base. Keep it simple using just oats or add flavour and texture by including other flakes and grains too
• Similarly, you can keep it very low sugar by sticking with nuts and seeds or you can add in a little dried fruit or more indulgent treats depending how virtuous you are feeling
• It is easy to split the muesli base into 2 so you can create 2 completely seperate versions of homemade muesli
• Or if you are regularly feeding a small army at breakfast you can easily scale up this recipe

This recipe is extremely quick and simple to prepare and stores well for at least a month in sealed jars. It is a great make-ahead recipe to have to hand to keep busy morning schedules on track.

In what follows you will find instructions, plenty of tips and 3 different suggestions for how to flavour a muesli base.

Ingredients

One of the many virtues of homemade muesli is that it is so adaptable. But all good renditions starts with a quality base.

In it's simplest form this base can be 100% oats. However, much more can be added.

What else can I add to the base?

To take your base from good to awesome, try using 50% oats with a combination of any of the following to make up the remaining 50%

• bran flakes
• spelt flakes
• wheat flakes
• puffed rice
• barley flakes
• rye flakes

Health food stores are a great place to pick up your selection. Holland and Barratt have a fantastic range of options to pick from.

Customising the base

Once you have your base you are free to throw into the mix any tasty extras your hungry heart desires and leave out anything you are less than 100% committed to enjoying.

Here are three of my favourite homemade muesli options:

• The Exotic One: pineapple, hazelnut, poppyseed and rose petal (deliciously different)
• The Nutty One: coconut, pecan, pistachio and hazelnut (a great low sugar option)
• The Crowdpleaser: hazelnut, almond, raisin and date (even the kids will love it)

All of these options are detailed fully in the recipe card. They do all contain pumpkin and/ or sesame seeds too.

But remember, nothing is set in stone when making homemade muesli. Think of homemade muesli as an adventure playground for flavours.

Vary the nuts. Vary the seeds. Make it your own. And, most importantly, make it suit your taste preferences.

Here are a few other worthy additions to consider adding to the toasted base:

• any dried fruits
• freeze-dried fruits, such as strawberries or raspberries
• cocoa nibs
• crystalised ginger
• goji berries
• dark chocolate chips
• dried banana chips
• ground spices, such as cinnamon or nutmeg

Again, browse your health food store and see what catches your eye. Play around and have some fun coming up with your own favourite flavours.

Step by Step Instructions

It is possible to make homemade muesli using raw ingredients. Simply measure out all selected ingredients, chopping the fruit and nuts as necessary, and mix together in a large bowl before decanting into storage jars.

This easy 5-minute recipe is perfectly acceptable. In fact, it's how I first made my own homemade muesli.

But over the years, I've discovered that toasting the base ingredients adds extra flavour and texture to the final product.

And the great news is that this step takes just 15 minutes and there is nothing complicated about it:

How to Toast the Muesli Base

Step 1: Start by scattering your oats, nuts and seeds (plus any other ingredients for your base) onto a clean, dry baking sheet and mix. Cook in a preheated oven for 7 minutes

Step 2: Toss and turn the part toasted base using a large metal spoon, then return to the oven for a further 7 minutes

Step 3: Remove from the oven, let cool on the baking sheet, then mix in the remaining ingredients, such as the dried fruit (and rose petals if using)

And that's it! The muesli is ready to be decanted into a large sealable jar and stored for up to 1 month.

Expert Tips and FAQs

Expert Tips

• The biggest tip I can give you when it comes to this recipe is to let your imagination run riot. You'll be surprised at your own creativity when it comes to dreaming up flavour combinations
• That said, do think out your base and the additions carefully. Aim to include some nuts and some seeds (dietary requirements permitting) to create a breakfast full of nutritional value
• Try to avoid adding excessive amounts of dried fruits as this will bump up the sugar content of your breakfast
• Aim for 50g-75g fruit and around 75g-100g nuts & seeds combined per 250g base for a good balance of flavour and texture
• When it comes to toasting the base, do remember to stir it partway through the cooking time to achieve an even toasting of ingredients
• Always let the muesli cool completely before transferring to a storage jar. This ensures the toasted ingredients stay crisp and fresh
• Likewise, always secure the lid straight after taking a serving out of the jar to retain maximum freshness. Rather like cookies, homemade muesli will lose it's freshness when left out for too long

Frequently Asked Questions

More Tasty Ideas for Breakfast:

• Peach Melba & Raspberry Granola Breakfast Bowls
• Tropical French Toast with Mango & Pineapple (Vegan)
• Blood Orange Drizzle Muffins
• Spiced Buckwheat Porridge