No-Bake Homemade Muesli Bars

These homemade muesli bars are n-bake and you can customise the flavour with whatever add-ins you like. They are perfect for school lunches or afternoon snacks.

It took me a long time, a lot of tweaking, and a few catastrophic disasters before I finally mastered making homemade muesli bars.

This recipe is deceptively simple, but getting the right sticky to dry ratio to get the perfectly chewy, not crumbly, but not too sticky, muesli bar is not as easy as it seems. But there are a few tips and tricks to help you make perfect muesli bars every time… well almost every time… hopefully!

This recipe is based on a combination of this one from Back to the Cutting Board and this one from Zoe’s Lunch Box with my own tweaks and changes.

Whip up a batch of these homemade muesli bars and impress your kids with how awesome they are!

Homemade Muesli Bars

Yield: 16

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

These homemade muesli bars are easy to customise with different add-ins, and they don't require baking.

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Ingredients

• 2 cup quick cook oats
• 1 cup of rice bubbles of any puffed grain cereal
• 60gms butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of honey, golden syrup or any other sugar syrup
• 1 tbsp malt extract (syrup)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup sultanas
• 1/4 cup cranberries

Instructions

1. Line and lightly butter a 20x30cm loaf tin. You could use a slightly smaller tin which will make your bars a little thicker. I use a ceramic lasagne dish because it’s what I have and it makes thin bars.
2. Mix the oats,cereal and any fruit or nuts you are addinng in a large bowl.
3. In a small saucepan combine the butter, honey, sugar and vanilla and stir over a medium heat until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved.
4. When the mixture starts to bubble and boil turn the heat down and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring now and then.
5. Take the syrup off the heat after two minutes and immediately pour it over your dry ingredients. Stir well to make sure all dry ingredients are coated.
6. Spread the mixture into your tin/dish and push it down very firmly with the back of a metal spoon.
7. You can sprinkle the top with choc chips or sprinkles if you like and using the spoon push them firmly into the top of your mixture too.
8. Let it sit in a cool place, or in the fridge for 30 minutes or completely cool, then lift out and cut into bars or bite sized pieces.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 16 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 148Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 2mgSodium: 30mgCarbohydrates: 34gFiber: 1gSugar: 22gProtein: 2g

Please note: this recipe uses Australian measurements and temperatures, if you need to convert measurements or temperatures you can find our printable cooking conversion chart here.

 

Homemade Muesli Bar Tips

Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way and some tips for making great homemade muesli bars.

1. Make sure you use quick cook oats, not just regular rolled oats. The quick cook oats have been cut into smaller bits and soak up the syrup better. You can whiz up some regular oats in the food processor but I found it was tricky to get exactly the right consistency so just gave.

2. Make sure you don’t over cook your syrup. You really want your sugar to just dissolve and not much more, so only let it boil for that two minutes then whip it straight into your mixture. If you find your bars are too sticky you could try cooking the syrup a tiny bit longer, but take it from me… and extra minute can mean the difference between muesli bars and muesli crumbles! Which, by the way are still tasty and great sprinkled over yoghurt for breakfast, so even my disasters were useful!

3. Make sure you push down the mix really firmly. The more you squish it down into the tin, the more firmly stuck together your bars will be.

Homemade Muesli Bar Add-ins

This recipe is really easy to change and add to to make the muesli bars whatever flavour you like.

We add the tablespoon of malt extract for the yummy flavour and the added bonus B vitamins, but the recpe works fine without it.

I often sprinkle a tablespoon or so of quinoa into the mix, or chia, or you could try any number of seeds or nuts depending on your likes and dislikes.

The recipe above calls for sultanas and dried cranberries but here are lots of other add-ins you could use insteads:

• Dried apple and cinnamon
• Dried apricot and coconut
• Dried mango and peaches
• choc chips (added to the top)
• mini marshmallows (added to the top)
• 100s and 1000s or sprinkles

Muesli bars can be expensive to buy, and if you have nut allergies (like my kids do) it can be hard to find one without an allergy risk, so it’s worth the effort to have a go at making your own. Hopefully, with this recipe, and my tips, you’ll be making the perfect homemade muesli bars to impress your kids!

(This recipe was originally Posted 08/04/2013 – Updated 30/06/2019)

 

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