07 March, 2011

Weetabix clusters


I remember as a child, I was very facinated by cornflake clusters. Reason being that my mother never baked and it was a treat since they didn't really sell them commercially either. When I grew up, my cousin made very good ones chockablock full of nuts and sesame seeds. Each bite was a study in nutty fragrances, balanced by a slightly salty caramel and buttery aftertaste. YUM! But she only made it during Chinese New Year.

So that day I was craving cornflake clusters and decided that since I was an adult now, I'd make them myself. So quite unlike my usual self, I just started without even checking that I had cornflakes. Yup. I had the butter melting in the pot with the honey, the almonds toasted and chopped and no cornflakes. Sigh. My stomach had obviously ran ahead of the brain.

Digging around in the pantry resulted in some Weetabix which would have to do. The result was actually quite good! Unfortunately, the Weetabix tended to absorb all the caramel and didn't hold as well as cornflake clusters would. But that didn't really matter since everyone was popping the entire cluster into their mouths at a shot.  A big hit with the kiddy crowd too!

Do you have any snacks that just bring back all those childhood memories?

Weetabix clusters
Ingredients
7 pieces of Weetabix
75g butter
3 tbs sugar
3 tbs honey
1 cup almonds
1/3 cup sesame seeds

Method
  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
  2. Blitz weetabix, almonds and sesame seeds in a food processor until coarsely chopped.
  3. Melt butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan and pour over the dry ingredients and mix.
  4. Scoop mixture into small cupcake cases.
  5. Bake for 5 minutes and take out to cool and set.
  6. Keeps in an airtight container for about 1 week (provided greedy fingers don't get to it first!)
Notes
  1. You can use other nuts if you like.
  2. It's a great way to "freshen up" breakfast cereal that has lost it's punch.

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