This is the last of my Muesli Bar Challenge series for the year. The draft of this post has been in my drafts folder since the very first week.  It’s one of my old favourites – so easy, so healthy, so school lunch box acceptable.  As a gardener, I’m really conscious that seeds are concentrated sources of nutrients – complex carbohydrates  that fuel a plant’s early growth, protein to allow it to create new cells, phytonutrients to protect it.  You can make these with or without nuts as well, depending on your school’s nut policy.

A whole four terms of Challenge recipes, and not one has come home uneaten.  Take that, LCMs!

The Recipe:

Into the food processor, put:

• two eggs,
• two dessertspoons (60 grams) butter,
• two dessertspoons of brown sugar.
• two heaped dessertspoons of wholemeal self-raising flour.

Blend this mix well, then add a cup full of nuts and/or seeds. I used pepitas, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds cashews,  macadamias and almonds, but you can use any combination.  You can blend this very briefly, just enough to break up the bigger nuts but not enough to blend, or you can just stir them in whole.  Large nuts might need rough chopping but whole seeds give a good texture. In the photo I left them whole, but in this latest batch that the kids are reviewing I blended briefly.

Add half a cup of sultanas. Organic sultanas are worth the expense if you can find them. You can taste the difference, and they haven’t been coated in cottonseed oil. If your school has a no-nuts policy, stick to just seeds.

Butter a baking tray and put spoonfuls on it. The biscuits will spread as they cook so give them room. Bake in a moderately hot oven for 10 to 15 minutes till nicely browned. Cool on the tray (they crispen as they cool).

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The local Farmers’ Market this week had apricots, from within 100 miles.  Seduced by memories of apricots I had in Tasmania years ago I bought a kilo.  Sadly it just retaught me a lesson I know so well:  eating local is not just an ethical response to the need to reduce transport of everything, by lots, but also a gastronomic choice that brings its own rewards.

Our northern apricots don’t compare with the golden, aromatic, dripping with juice things I remember from Tasmania.  Tart and thin flavoured, these ones had to be cooked, and even then, I think the recipe works better for me with nectarines  – they’re more adapted to a warmer climate.  Try it with apricots if you live south enough, or otherwise try nectarines or plums instead.

This is the second last  Muesli Bar Challenge recipe before the end of term.

The Recipe:

The Semolina Cream

In a small saucepan, bring to the boil:

• 1 ¼ cups milk
• 4 dessertspoons brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 dessertspoons (30 grams) of semolina

Cook this mix, stirring constantly, for 3 or 4 minutes until it is thick and creamy.

Take it off the heat and allow to cool a little while you make the pastry.

The Pastry:

In the food processor, put

• 1¼ cups of wholemeal plain flour,
• 3 dessertspoons of butter

Blend for a minute until it resembles breadcrumbs.  (Or you can just mix the flour and sugar and rub the butter in with your finger tips). Add just enough cold water to make a soft dough.  Add it  carefully, spoonful at a time.

Sprinkle flour on your benchtop and roll it out quite thin. Use a small saucer to cut 10 cm circles and put each in a cup of a greased 12 cup muffin tray.

Assembling

Fish out the cinnamon stick and use an egg beater to beat 2 eggs into the semolina.

Fill each pastry case ¾ full with semolina cream.

Slice your apricots or nectarines into wedges and set the wedges into the semolina cream, half in and half out.

Bake the tarts for about 45 minutes in a medium-slow oven.  About 10 minutes before they are fully cooked, spoon a teaspoonful of glaze on top of each tart.  The easy way to make a glaze is to mix a couple of teaspoons of jam with a little hot water.  If you don’t have jam, make a quick sugar syrup with a couple of teaspoons of sugar boiled in a little water until syrupy.  Watch them after you have glazed as they will brown and then burn quite quickly.

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Early season peaches are just coming into season here.  I don’t really grow stonefruit – we are smack bang in fruit fly territory and it’s just too much work.  I have a couple of volunteer seedling peach trees though, and although most years the birds, possums, and flying foxes get most of the fruit,  the trees bear so heavily we get some.  All of it is fruit fly stung but good for cooking, or for eating straight from the tree, ideally shared with some chooks who fight over the fruit fly stung parts as I drop them.

There is good stone fruit growing country on the Tablelands though, within my 100 mile zone but only for a short while, so time to make the most of it.

This is an adaption of an adaption of a traditional Italian recipe.  The original original is Sbrisolona, which has a crumbly texture.  Sbrisoletta is a cake-like version invented by a “Nonna” called Rose – you can find that original here.  It was still a bit too sweet and dessert-like and too crumbly for a Muesli Bar Challenge recipe though, so my niece Rosie and I did some experimenting and made it into a lunchbox Sbrisoletta.

This cake is the most gorgeous way to use lots of stonefruit.  It has very little sugar, a bit more butter than the usual but still within the rules, and it is really easy – 12 year old Rosie made this one.  It is an unlikely kind of recipe – several bits don’t seem right – but it works.

The Recipe:

Makes about 12 squares or slices.

For this recipe you need a shallow cake pan that is 21 cm diameter, or (preferably) a similar area in a square or rectangular shape, eg 18.5 cm square, or 14cm by 25 cm rectangle. Grease it with butter and line with greaseproof paper.

Turn your oven on to heat up.

Plump up a tablespoon of sultanas, by pouring just a little boiling water over them.

In the food processor, blend together

• 4/5 of a cup of wholemeal self raising flour
• 2/3 of a cup of semolina
• 4 dessertspoons of brown sugar
• 125 grams of cold butter, chopped into pieces
• pinch salt
• ¾ teaspoon of baking powder

Blend for a minute until it resembles breadcrumbs – like the first stage of making pastry.

Spread two thirds of this mix over the base of your greased, paper-lined cake tin. Don’t press it down – just leave it as a loose crumb.

Over the top of this, sprinkle evenly:

• 600 grams of  ripe, juicy peaches (about 6 medium peaches) chopped into small bits
• Your tablespoon of plumped up sultanas (drained)
• A tablespoon of pine nuts
• Pinch of cinnamon
• Grated zest of a lemon

Spread the rest of the dry mix over this.

Beat together and Pour Over:

• Half a cup of milk
• 2 small eggs (or one egg and one egg yolk)

Pour this evenly over the top of the dry mix in the cake pan.  Allow it to soak in for a few minutes. You can sprinkle a few flaked almonds on top as decoration if you like.

Bake in a moderate oven for around 45 minutes until set.

Before You Cut It Up

Cover the warm cake and leave to cool for a few hours or overnight in the cake pan.  If you try to remove it while it is hot, it will be too crumbly.  But  overnight the moisture in it spreads out and it firms up and can be cut up into squares that are robust enough for a lunch box.

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Our blueberry bushes are bearing and the farm up the road is selling bags of blueberry seconds so this is the  second in the   Muesli Bar Challenge series featuring blueberries.  Last week’s muffins are a hard act to follow.  This recipe is just as healthy, low in fat and sugar and featuring ricotta, yoghurt, eggs and wholemeal flour along with the blueberries. It takes a little longer to make but still within the Challenge rules of being easy enough for busy parents or kids themselves to make.

The Recipe:

This recipe makes lots – around 20 squares, depending on how small you slice them. I have a shallow baking tray 33 cm by 23 cm which is perfect for it.

Before you start, turn your oven on to heat up and grease the baking tray with butter.

The Crust:

In the food processor, mix together

• 2 cups wholemeal plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 good dessertspoons of brown sugar

Add 3 good dessertspoons of butter and continue processing for a minute until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Reserve 2/3 of a cup of crust mix, and press the rest into the base of your baking tray. Press down hard.

Pop it into the oven to bake for 15 minutes, while you make the filling.

Filling:

You don’t need to wash the food processor.

Blend together:

• 250 gm ricotta
• 100 gm low fat plain yoghurt
• 3 dessertspoons of brown sugar
• Juice and zest of a large lemon
• 3 large eggs (or 4 small)

Assembling:

Pour the filling over the crust. Sprinkle in 2 cups of blueberries. They should be almost but not quite covered by filling.

Sprinkle the reserved 2/3 cup of crust over the top.

Bake in a medium oven for another 35 to 40 minutes until set. It will firm up a little more as it cools.

Cool in the tray, then slice up and remove with a cake slice.

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