Cranberry Almond Muesli Bars

On Saturday my family and I are having a bit of a working bee to tidy up some long-ignored areas of Merchiston, a 130-year-old villa which is owned by a family trust. The best way to inspire people to roll up their sleeves (well, aside from paying them lots of money, which we don't have) is providing some yummy food to fuel their work. It should be a fun but tiring day so I whipped up some muesli bars using the Edmonds Anzac biscuit recipe with a couple of small tweaks.

This is a pretty quick recipe to put together, and if you're after some sustenance for something, or maybe to create your own lunchbox snacks - you can tweak the fruit and nuts you add to suit your tastes - maybe macadamias instead of almonds for a really grown-up treat, or chopped dried apricots with chocolate chips instead of nuts, for example. Think of all the yummy possibilities!

I made a double mix since I know they won't last long when we're slogging away on Saturday. You start off by throwing the dry ingredients in a bowl - the beauty of this recipe is that precision isn't as important as in some. So long as the ingredients stick together and the proportions are about right it should taste good.

There's a sort of mini chemistry experiment in the middle, where you melt the golden syrup and butter in one container, and mix the baking soda with boiling water in another, then combine the two so that the syrup/butter mixture fizzes up excitingly (I really should make some hokey pokey). 

Then you just mix it all together. So easy! This is one of those recipes where hands do a better job than a spoon at combining everything - since the mixture isn't excessively endowed with wet ingredients and you don't want any patches of dry oats/flour. Plus then you'll get to lick your fingers clean!

It turns a luscious golden colour when baked. If you like you can dribble chocolate over the top like I did - but it's pretty tasty on its own too. 

If you want some and you'll be in Christchurch on Saturday and don't mind getting your hands dirty you're more than welcome to come along. ;-)

Cranberry Almond Muesli Bars (adapted from the Edmonds cook book)

Ingredients

70g slivered almonds

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup coconut

3/4 cup rolled oats

150g dried cranberries

75g butter

1 1/2 Tbsp golden syrup

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp boiling water 

Preheat oven to 180 C. Spread almonds on a tray and toast in oven for 7-10 minutes or until brown.

Combine almonds, flour, sugar, coconut, oats and cranberries in a bowl. 

Melt the golden syrup and butter together. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water in another container, then add to the golden syrup mixture. Mix into dry ingredients until all combined. 

Press mixture into a greased brownie pan or 20cm square cake tin and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden and cooked through. Cool in the tin. Turn out and drizzle with chocolate if desired. Cut into pieces to serve.