Weekend Bake; Chewy Peanut Butter Muesli Bars

I've developed a tradition in my house; every weekend, I bake a new work-friendly snack for Mr. Lemon Living. It started off as a convenient way for me to try out new baking recipes, but one week, 3 or so months ago I skipped the baking and left packaged muesli bars for Mr. LL to graze on during the week. Much to my delight, by Tuesday night Mr. LL was telling me that he missed having something home made in his work bag. The rest is history.

It should be mentioned that, as Mr. LL has grown custom to my super healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner options, the weekly bake is almost never a healthy option. It's kind of an admittance on my part that if you're going to bake, it's really going to taste better with butter, sugar and the rest. Having said that, I usually eat one serving of each baking batch. There's usually excess which gets taken to work to share, or delivered to family or friends.

Here's to Lemon Living's first display of the weekend bake!

Chewy Peanut Butter Muesli Bars

Recipe from New Idea

I;

1 3/4 cups Rolled Oats

1/4 cup Pepitas

1 tbsp Seasame Seeds

1/2 cup Honey

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 cups Cornflakes

1/2 cup Sultanas

1/2 cup Crunchy Peanut Butter

125g unsalted Butter.

M;

Grease an 18cm x 28cm rectangular slice pan. Line base and sides of pan with baking paper, extending paper 3cm above pan edges - (I used 1 20x20cm pan, and 1 loaf tin as my pans were all too big).

Place rolled oats, cornflakes, pepitas, sultanas and sesame seeds in a large bowl. Stir to combine.

Combine peanut butter, honey, chopped butter and brown sugar in a medium saucepan. Cook, stirring, over low heat for about 5 minutes, or until mixture is slightly thickened.

Add honey mixture to oat mixture. Stir to combine.

Press combined mixture firmly over base of prepared slice pan.

Refrigerate until firm.

To serve, lift slice from pan, cut into rectangles.

This slice is yummy with a capital ! I think as a peanut butter super-lover, I am slightly biased as it is super peanut butter-y. My only criticisms of this slice is that it is super sweet, to the point of a sugar headache after 1 serving for me, but I am very sensitive to sugar. Mine also didn't set very hard (if you hold a bar from one end, it flops and falls apart), so I have wrapped them in individual portions and put them in the freezer door for Mr. LL to grab on his way out in the mornings.

Ignoring that, it's just ridiculously tasty.

Note that despite my extreme love of natural peanut butter and intolerance of the processed stuff, the processed stuff always stands up better against other ingredients in baking. I keep some in the house purely for this reason.

Also note the above as an amazing example of muesli bars not always being the healthiest option, and an excellent example of how they can be higher in fat and sugar than many dessert options.

Also note that sometimes, you just gotta' enjoy it.

Stay well,

Nat x