Years ago I was living in Chambery, a beautiful little town in the Rhône-Alpes region of France. There was a little cafe, where I used to stop for my mid-morning caffeine fix. I would get my cafe espresso and a small cookie called “Croustillant de Muesli Choco au Sirop D’érable” (Muesli chocolate crunch-cookie with maple syrup).
I loved those cookies. I was so addicted to them I would literally devour them by the handful. They were that crazy-good. Just the right amount of sweetness and salt. Crispy and super-crunchy. And if that wasn’t enough, they were super nutritious.
I’ve never been able to find anything like them in Southern California. Every now and then, I would get a craving for them so I decided it was time to try and make my own Croustillant de Muesli Choco.
After some online research and few recipes later, I struck out. I couldn’t find any recipe resembling the Croustillant de Muesli I had at that cafe. I decided to just start with a basic recipe for granola bars and work my way from there.
I made several attempts at replicating those wonderful cookies. My goal was to reduce the amount of sugar usually found in commercial granola bars.
One problem I kept running into is how to get the mixture to clump together without adding too much honey or maple syrup. Keep in mind, I was working from a memory of something that goes several years back.
After more research on the internet, I discovered that one of the many secrets to making homemade granola bars was to add an egg white. The lightly beaten egg white acts like a glue and helps the granola mixture stick together.
So, after few trials and lots of errors, I finally produced delicious cookies that are nutritious enough for a great breakfast or a healthy tasty snack. They are not exactly like the ones I had in France but they are darn close.
I use Bob’s Red Mill Muesli which contains rolled oats, wheat, rye, barley, almonds, dates, sunflower seeds and walnuts. I add a good quality olive oil – just enough to make them crispy and super crunchy instead of chewy.
- 3 cups muesli
- ¼ cup tart cherries coarsely chopped
- ½ cup pecans coarsely chopped
- ¼ cup raw sesame seeds
- ¼ cup coco nibs
- ½ tsp vanilla paste
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 3 tbs honey
- 1 egg white room temperature and lightly beaten
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- Fleur de sel for sprinkling
- In a small pot, mix the honey, maple syrup, vanilla and oil and heat on low until the mixture starts to simmer. Immediately, turn off the stove and let the mixture cool until it reaches room temperature.
- In a large bowl, combine muesli, pecans, sesame seeds and kosher salt. Add maple syrup mixture and stir.
- Let the mixture sit for about 15 to 20 minutes until it softens.
- Stir in the beaten egg white. Continue working the mixture, in fact I recommend that you crush it for few seconds with the palm of your hands until it starts clumping together forming a ball.
- Add, the chopped cherries, cocoa nibs and stir. Scoop the mixture onto a baking sheet using an ice cream scoop. Lightly sprinkle each cookie with Fleur de Sel and bake at 300 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.
Yummy