Homemade Muesli

Now that the weather is warming up I'm becoming increasing sick of porridge for breakfast and decided some muesli might make a nice change!

I'm a fan of toasted muesli but I find the ones you buy from the supermarket are often overpriced and not particularly amazing, so I like the idea of making my own and adding in anything I like (lots of NICE dried fruit, nuts and seeds) and missing out anything i don't (sultanas, sunflower seeds etc). The great thing about it is if you don''t like fruit or nuts you can leave them out or you can add extra ingredients, whatever tickles your fancy!

Ingredients

1 cup runny honey
80g butter (or mild flavoured oil)

1kg of rolled oats (or a mix of oats and other grains)

about 1 cup sesame seeds

125g pistachio nuts

Mixed dried fruit about 500g (I used dried sour cherries, pears and apricots

2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp rosewater, 1 tsp cardamom (or any spices you like)

Method

Firstly preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and line two large baking trays with baking paper. Place honey and butter in a saucepan and heat over medium heat until the butter melts, at the stage the honey should be more fluid as well. Remove from heat and in a large bowl mix the honey and butter with the oats, seeds and nuts until evenly coated.

Place the mix into the prepared trays and spread out so it's in a layer about 1cm thick. Place in the oven and bake for 20 - 30 minutes stirring every five to ten minutes and bringing the mix from the edges into the centre. Once it's nicely golden remove from the oven and leave to cool then mix in chopped fruit.

This would be really good with milk and fresh fruit, or even sprinkled over some flavoured or plain yoghurt. Yum!