Microwave Single Muesli Bars / Muesli Party Bites

Microwave muesli bars take just a few minutes, but as they’re so high in calories and so easy to make, but why make a whole tray of them when all you need is a single muesli bar fix? It doesn’t make sense if you’re cooking for one to make a whole tray of them, you’ll only eat the lot, then regret it!  I turn mine into muesli party bites, as this recipe makes two muesli “nuggets”, great for an evening TV snack instead of reaching for the chocolate!

These make chewy/soft muesli bars, not the hard, teeth-breaking sort!

I’ll typically make a single muesli bar on demand and it occurred to me that there might be others who want a quick and tasty muesli bar either for breakfast, lunch or the office lunchbox, without having the temptation of 12-20 others sitting in the fridge!

I use the Tesco Everyday Muesli for this recipe, but any bag of muesli will do. I started using muesli and making muesli bars with this after I made my first batch of flapjacks using just oats and having to buy/mix in other ingredients. It simply made sense to buy a ready-mixed bag of muesli as it meant the cupboards were a little less cluttered and I’d got nothing lurking around being unused.

The muesli I use comes in a 1Kg bag, which fits into a lock n lock style box about 2 litres in size Actually, I tend to keep it in two separate 1 litre boxes as that works better for my cupboard space. Sometimes I do happen to have additional ingredients to throw in, but as muesli already comes with additional items I don’t have to ‘stress’ that they could be more interesting .. 🙂 Right now I’ve got a pot of glacé cherries to get through, that’s rare, but when it happens I can throw in additional interesting items if I wish – there’s no compulsion to go shopping for the extra ingredients.

What is in Muesli?

The contents will vary, from bag to bag – more expensive ones will include more exotic fruits and additions. The Tesco Everyday Muesli simply contains wheat, oat flakes, barley flakes, toasted wheat flakes, mixed dried fruit and chopped hazelnuts – they are all natural ingredients. 7% of the mix is mixed dried fruits and there’s just 1% of chopped hazelnuts.

This budget brand muesli costs, at the time of writing, just £1.18/Kg, making it a great frugal treat!

Ingredients: 

• 30 grams of muesli, which is 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons – I keep a 1/4 cup scoop in the box of muesli, as they’re so cheap to buy.
• 1 tablespoon of jam, or a jam portion if you’re camping! The thicker/stickier the better, or use golden syrup or honey.
• 1 level teaspoon butter
• 1 teaspoon water
• 1 glacé cherry for the topping, optional

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a mug.
2. Microwave on half power for 30 seconds and give it a mix. 
3. Microwave on half power for a further 30-45 seconds.
4. Remove the mug or dish from the microwave oven and set aside for 5 minutes for it to cool down and set. Or, scoop it out and reshape it quickly into the shape you want – I use silicone cup cake cases for this as it makes nice bite-sized muesli nuggets and they pop out easily!
5. If you’re topping your muesli bars with choc chips, or glacé cherries, or anything else, add that now!
6. Wait 30 minutes for everything to cool down and set.  I pop mine into the fridge after about 10 minutes, to cool quicker, if you’re really impatient and have a spare corner in the freezer, then slide them in there for fast results!
7. Eat, or store in the fridge in a lidded container.  I keep old margarine tubs, which are a great size for storing small quantities of gooey treats!

I make my single muesli bars in an 800watt microwave. This recipe really needs low power, so if you’ve a more powerful microwave, then try this first on a lower setting and microwave it in 15-20 second blasts until it looks/smells ‘cooked’. Once you’ve done it a couple of times you’ll know the exact timings for your microwave.

Be Aware:

• Jams are variable in how well they set – the stickier the better – use a looser jam and you’ll need to use less jam in this recipe.  The jam is there as a “sticky binder”.  How chewy you like your muesli bars can be a personal preference.  If yours turn out to be too loose, then you can either add a bit more muesli and microwave it again, or add in a “dry” ingredient such as dessicated coconut or even cocoa powder to try to stiffen it a little.  You might need to try this recipe a couple of times to get it “just how you like it” as we’re all different!
• If you microwave muesli on full power it’s likely to burn, that’s why the recipe calls for half power.

Cost:

If 1Kg of muesli costs ~£1.20, then 30 grams costs just £0.036 (3½p).  A teaspoon of jam and the butter probably adds less than another 1p.  So, these will definitely cost you less than £0.05 per portion – or, if you’ve made muesli nuggets like mine, they’re just 2½p/nibble!  Great party bites if there’s just 1-2 people (yes, 1-2 can still be in the party mood!).

Variations:

You can mix this up with any flavour of jam you like – and any mini toppings.  You can also use honey or golden syrup as the “mixer”.  You need something “sticky” to bind them, that’s all.