If you’ve been following the Breakfast Challenge series at all, you’ll know that “my current favourite” breakfast is usually only the current favourite for a few weeks.
Partly that’s because what is best, in taste and in health and in cost, is always based on the fruits and nuts and grains and vegetables that are in season. And partly it’s because I get bored fast, and it’s too easy to avoid boring breakfasts even on very busy school and work days.
So this is unusual.
This is my current favourite breakfast for weeks now, one that I have been regularly going for several days in a row. I like it for all the usual reasons – tasty, easy, fast, cheap – but not least because I can feel it doing my cholesterol good. Besides oats and oat bran, which are full of a kind of soluble fibre that reduces cholesterol, they have macadamias, which work as well as the “clinically proven to lower cholesterol” fake food margarines based on hydrogenated sterols that are being so aggressively marketed these days.
Really good for crazy busy mornings, because I can make a batch that lasts for a few days and grab a couple on my way out the door.
Sadly, it’s coming to the end of the macadamia season, so I’m making the most of it.
The Recipe:
Turn the oven on high to heat up. You want a hot oven.
In a food processor, blend together:
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ½ cup oat bran
- ½ cup plain raw macadamias (if possible, freshly cracked)
- a teaspoon of grated lemon zest
Blend until it is a coarse meal, like breadcrumbs, then add
- 2 dessertspoons of honey
- 2 dessertspoons of macadamia or rice bran oil
- 2 dessertspoons of lemon juice
Blend a bit more just to combine.
You should be able to squeeze the mixture together, with wet hands, into little balls about half the size of an egg. If you need to, add a tiny dash more of any of the liquid ingredients and blend again till they will hold together. Put the balls on a greased biscuit tray and flatten them with a fork.
Bake for around 6 to 8 minutes until they are golden. Cool on the tray (they will crispen up as they cool).
They will keep for a few days in an airtight jar.
I love macadamias, but don’t get to eat them nearly enough. These sound great. Good for kids snacks too!
Hi Linda. Let me start by saying I love your work! I am new follower to your blog and have just made a batch of these bikkies. Unfortunately they didn’t work out and I don’t know why. I followed the recipe to a tee and I’m just wondering if I was meant to use ALL of the liquids or just ONE of them. Otherwise the only thing I can think of is …. my oven just wasn’t hot enough??? Many thanks for putting yourself out there for us. Natalie
Hi Natalie, I wonder too! You are meant to use all three liquid ingredients – honey, maca oil and lemon juice. I sometimes find 2 dessertspoons of each is enough, and sometimes I have to add a tiny bit more. Maybe it’s the humidity of the day or the freshness of the oats or the tree the macas came off. The other tip is to leave them to cool on the tray – they are quite crumbly when they come out of the oven but they crispen up as they cool. I shall make a batch tomorrow and post some pictures of the mix as I go – that might help.
Hi Natalie, I made again tonight, and posted a slide show above. They were a little slower to brown this time – a bit thicker and a bit cooler oven. But otherwise….
Thank you Linda! That DID help. On watching, I think I have made my dry mixture too fine, and worst of all, I believe I have used a tablespoon measurement instead of a dessert spoon!!! Will give it another go – but there are just SO many yummy recipes here that it might be a while 🙂 Natalie