Weet-Bix Hi-Fi Muesli

4 cups Sanitarium Rolled Oats
½ cup shredded coconut
½ cup Sanitarium Betts ‘B’ Wheatgerm
¼ cup water
1/3 cup oil
¼ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup chopped Sanitarium Seeded Raisins
½ cup dried apples
½ cup chopped Sanitarium Fancy Large Dried Apricots
8 Weet-Bix, coarsely crushed

1. Baked rolled oats on a shallow tray in a moderate oven, 180°C for 10 minutes,
2. Place rolled oats in a bowl. Mix thoroughly coconut and wheatgerm
3. Shake together water, oil and vanilla in a small jar. Add to dry ingredients. Mix well.
4. Return to shallow tray and bake in a very slow oven, 120°C, stirring every 15 minutes, until golden brown.
5. Remove from oven and cool.
6. Add dried fruits and Weet-Bix, Mix through.
7. Store in an airtight container.

Approximately 16 x ½ cup serves.

Per serve: 921 kilojoules (219 calories)
Protein 5 grams. Fat 9 grams. Carbohydrate 32 grams. Sodium 42 milligrams. Calcium 30 milligrams. Fibre 7 grams

This recipe was off the side of a packet of Weet-bix from years ago. I have always made my own muesli using a basic recipe that I sort of add or subtract from depending on what I have in the pantry.
I decided I would make this recipe and went and bought what I thought were dried apples. I didn’t actually write them on my shopping list and thought I knew exactly what I was going to buy and where I would find them in the grocery shop. A few days later I assembled all the ingredients to make this recipe and discovered as I read the recipe through I had bought dried banana slices and not apples. I went ahead and made it anyway using the dried banana and it still tasted quite nice.
It made a good batch that lasted more than a fortnight in this house as it is just me who eats it for breakfast and I don’t have it every day.

Bran Biscuits

175g butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp golden syrup
1 cup EDMONS Wheat Bran
1/2 cup EDMONDS Wholemeal Flour
1 cup EDMONDS Standard Grade Flour
1 tsp EDMONDS Baking Powder
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Add eggs and golden syrup and beat well.
4. Mix wheat bran, flour, baking powder and salt until well combined and soft dough forms.
5. Tip dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to 5-7mm thickness.
6. Cut to desired biscuit shape and place on greased or lined oven tray.
7. Bake for 15-20 mins or until golden brown and baked. Makes about 20


This was another recipe on the back of a packet. The Edmonds Natural Wheat Bran packet.
At first I was quite surprised as to how much butter was used but I made it anyway.
It was quite sticky (probably because of the amount of butter!) so I actually added some more flour and made sure my surface was quite covered in flour when it came to rolling out the dough.

It's quite a healthy biscuit when it comes to most of its ingredients but because I have always eaten bran biscuits with a bit of butter spread on it, I still think it uses quite a lot of butter.

ANZAC Caramel Slice

Ingredients 
Shortcake Base 
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup sugar
100g butter, melted

Topping
¼ cup sugar
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup threaded desiccated coconut (or use regular)
¼ cup slivered almonds
50g butter, melted

380g can Highlander Caramel Dessert filling

Method 
1. Preheat oven to 180 °C. Combine all the base ingredients. Press into a baking paper lined square cake tin (20.5 x 20.5 x 4.5cm). Bake for 15–20 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
2. To make the topping put the sugar, rolled oats, coconut and slivered almonds into a mixing bowl. Stir in the melted butter. Set aside.
3. Beat the caramel dessert filling until smooth. Spread over the shortcake base. Sprinkle over the topping. Return slice to the oven and cook a further 25 minutes, until the top is golden. Cool in the tin.
Slice into pieces to serve.

The was a recipe promoted on the Food in a Minute website.
It is rather nice although I would say so, being rather partial to caramel!

Using a can of caramel filling instead of making your own from scratch was certainly convenient. I did find the amount of the topping meant that it didn't all "stick" to the caramel so I would probably make slightly less. I also found the base quite hard, so may not cook it for the full 20 minutes next time.

Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Ingredients 
125g butter
½ cup Chelsea Soft Brown Sugar (lightly packed)
½ cup Chelsea Caster Sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1¾ cups self-raising flour
½ tsp salt
½ cup chocolate chunks or chips

Method 
Preheat oven to 180°C conventional or 160ºC fan forced and grease or line two baking trays with baking paper. Beat butter, sugars and vanilla until pale and creamy, add egg and beat until mixed.

Sift in flour and salt, mix until combined before stirring in the chocolate chunks or chips. Roll heaped teaspoon sized balls of mixture and place on tray, press down lightly with a floured fork. Bake for approx. 12 minutes.

Tip: Substitute chocolate with Smarties, M&Ms or chopped nuts.

This was a recipe from a New World advertising flyer. It is actually from the Chelsea website and can be found here.

This as an easy recipe to follow and is quite sweet so of course enjoyed by many.
I personally would not use as much sugar and do actually like my own recipe I have used for years that can be found here.

Chelsea Banana Choc Chip Muffins

Ingredients
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
¼ cup oil (plain vegetable, soya or canola oil)
1 cup low fat milk
¾ cup Chelsea Soft Brown Sugar
2 ½ cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Spray a tray of 12 muffin tins with non stick spray.
In a large bowl beat the eggs, mashed bananas, oil, milk and brown Sugar together – just lightly. Mix in the flour, baking powder and chocolate chips. Don’t over mix – the ingredients should be just gently stirred together to combine. Spoon into the prepared tins and bake for 15 – 18 minutes. Until puffed and golden brown. Cool for 2 minutes in the tins, then gently twist and ease the muffins out to cool on a wire rack.

Tip: Always soak the muffin tins straight away, as soon as you’ve removed the muffins. This means the tins clean up easily and you don’t have to scrub at them and risk ruining their lovely shiny non stick surface. 

I followed directions and used Canola oil simply because that was what I had or Olive oil and I do fee that Olive oil is too strong to use in baking.

This was on an advertising flyer from New World, but it is actually from the Chelsea website.
I have a few recipes for muffins with banana and chocolate and I can only say this is not a keeper. I don’t know why. It is full of chocolate chips but tastes very bland. It was improved with the smothering of butter on it to eat it but that is not really how I eat my muffins. Most of the time I eat them without butter or margarine but these definitely needed that to remove the bland oily flavour.

ANZAC Biscuits

recipe one on the left - recipe two on the right

I am going to do two recipes for this post.
Both are from advertising material that comes through our letterbox.

Recipe one

Ingredients 
125 g butter 
¼ cup golden syrup 
½ tsp baking soda 
1 tbsp hot water 
½ cup plain flour 
½ cup sugar 
1 cup desiccated coconut 
1 cup rolled oat 

Preparation 
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. 
Melt butter and golden syrup in a saucepan large enough to hold all the ingredients. Remove from the heat. 
Dissolve baking soda in hot water and mix into the melted ingredients. 
Mix flour, sugar, coconut and oats together until combined. Mix into the butter mixture until well combined. 
Using a measuring tablespoon, take spoonfuls of the mixture and place on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Press with a fork to flatten – allow room for spreading. 
Bake for 10–12 minutes or until golden. 
Leave on the oven tray to cool and firm up before moving to a cooling rack. 

This recipe was contributed by Robyn Martin in the “New World” catalog. You can actually find the recipe here.  She makes an interesting comment on how she changed recipes for her to cook/mix it all in one pot instead of creaming the butter and sugar etc. I have made different versions of ANZAC biscuits and they have all been melt in the pot ones.

Recipe two

Ingredients 
115g butter 
1 Tbsp golden syrup 
1 tsp baking soda mixed with 2 Tbsp boiling water 
1 cup sugar 
1 cup desiccated coconut 
1 cup rolled oats 
¾ cup plain flour 
1 cup chopped walnuts 

Method 
1. Preheat oven to 140°C, not fan bake. 
2. In a medium sized pot, melt butter and golden syrup. Add baking soda and stir well. Remove from heat. 
3. Add sugar, coconut, oats, flour and walnuts stirring the mixture until well combined. 
4. Line 2 baking trays with paper. Roll the mixture into dessert spoon size balls leaving a space in between each. Gently flatten with a fork. 
5. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, then swap the trays around for even cooking for a further 10 minutes. Remove and let the biscuits sit for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. 

Makes approximately 25 biscuits.

This recipe was from the Countdown flyer. It can be found here.  There is no reference as to where they got it from.

Both recipes were good but I must admit I liked the second one with the added walnuts although this is a twist on the original recipe. The instructions for both are easy to follow and I would recommend either to anyone looking for a recipe.

Chocolate, Honey & Nut Slice

Base

170g Butter, softened 
2/3 cup Sugar 
½ tsp Vanilla Essence 
1¾ cups Flour 
¼ cup Cocoa 
1 tsp Baking Powder 1

Topping
100g Butter 
½ cup each: Sugar, Honey 
2 cups Mixed Nuts 
150g dark or milk Chocolate, chopped

Method 
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line an 18cm x 28cm baking pan with baking paper. 
To make the base: cream butter and sugar with an electric beater until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and beat again. Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix until evenly combined. Press into the base of the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes. 

To make the topping: melt the butter, sugar and honey together in a saucepan over a low heat. Bring the mixture slowly to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes. 

Sprinkle the nuts and chocolate over the hot base. Pour over the honey mixture. 

Reduce the oven temperature to 150ºC and cook for another 10-15 minutes. Leave to cool in the pan. Cut into small pieces to serve. 

For a chocolate pecan version, replace the mixed nuts with pecans. 

 Courtesy of Food Magazine. Recipe by Sandra Kinniburgh.

This recipe came recently in a Countdown catalog at Easter.
As I was having family come to visit I wanted to make some goodies for nibbles and afternoon tea.
I thought I would try this before filing it away in the large plastic bag!.

It was a recipe that required a few different steps and to be honest was not really yummy although Carl seemed to munch on a few slices. The honey taste was strong so it may have been the honey I used. It was from some friends who have their own bees so no particular brand of flavour. I think I would use the darkest type of chocolate too to give it a darker colour and flavour so to speak if I was to make it again.