My oven is broken – mwah! And my freezer stash is depleted – even bigger mwah! So this No Bake Toasted Sesame and Oat Muesli Bar was created out of necessity of having to find ways to restock the freezer without the using the oven. Make a batch of this, put it in the freezer and then pop a piece in the lunchbox as you need it.
I should also share I am a simple and smart cook. I like to be able to use my recipes multiple ways. So this recipe is very closely modelled off my very popular Chewy Caramel Rice Bar. So if you have the ingredients to make this recipe, then you can also make the Chewy Caramel Rice Bar. Pop them both in the freezer for 2 different looking and tasting lunchbox snacks. #winning
Ingredients
- 2 cups of oats
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
- 30g butter
- 1/2 cup tahini
- 1/2 cup rice malt syrup
- 2 tspns vanilla extract
- 1/4 tspn salt (add a little more if you’d like a stronger salted caramel flavour)
- 2 tbls cacao nibs
Method
- Grab a small frying pan and heat it over high heat
- Turn the heat down to medium, add the oats to the pan, and start to dry toast them. Use a wooden spoon to stir the oats around.
- After 1-2 minutes, add the sesame seeds to the pan and combine.
- Dry toast the oats and the sesame until you start to hear the sesame seeds popping or the oats and sesame seeds appear to be browning a little
- Remove oats and sesame seeds from heat
- Grab a small sauce pan and over medium heat, melt the butter
- Add in the tahini, rice malt syrup and vanilla extract. Stir over heat until it creates a thick caramel sauce
- Add the salt to the caramel sauce, and stir well
- Remove about 2 tablespoons of the sauce and pop it into a bowl (we’ll use this to spoon over the top of the slice – this step is optional)
- Add the cacao nibs to the cooled toasted oats and sesame seeds, mix well
- Spoon the caramel sauce onto the oats and seed mix
- Mix well until all the oats and seeds are covered with the sauce
- Line a lamington tray with baking paper, and push the mix into the pan
- Use the back of a spoon to flatten the mix down into the pan. As the mix starts to harden, it can get a little sticky, so wet the back of the spoon to make it easy to push down
- If you’ve chosen to pop some of the caramel sauce on the top of the slice, take a teaspoon of the sauce, and drag it across the top of the slice in lines – this may require you using your finger to push the sauce off the spoon initially to get it started
- Pop it into the freezer for a couple of hours, then remove, and cut into the sized pieces you like. I do a mix of squares and longer slices.
Note – if you’ve added the sauce to the top of the slice as a decoration, it will soften a little in the lunchbox. The later in gets eaten in the day, the more sticky the sauce will become.
Freezer / Storage Instructions
Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. If you need to keep the pieces separated, pop a piece of baking paper in between them.
Another 2 ways
- Change the oats and seeds to another kind of grain and seed eg. puffed rice and pepitas.
- Remove the cacao nibs and add sultanas or goji berries.
Just a reminder, you don’t need to be a master chef, or have a big spotless kitchen to make awesome nutritious meals or snacks for your family.
This recipe contains links to our favourite wholefoods pantry store, The Wholefood Collective, who delivers Australia’s most vetted organic and healthy food to members with big savings. Essentially The Wholefood Collective is making affordable organic whole food available for all! We love them. Please do check them out. If you purchase from one of the links from this page, then you get the same great price but the The Wholefood Collective will also send us a small financial thank you – this helps us to continue to keep providing you with loads of free recipes, tips and educational articles. We thank you for supporting us by shopping using these links.