Fruit, Nut and Seed Flapjacks

This week I've been busy baking breakfast food. I've already posted my banana, blueberry and apple muffins and I have another muffin recipe to share with you later. For a change, I decided to make some chunky flapjacks which are brilliant for breakfast on the go. I bought some packets of fruit, nut and seed mix from Aldi as healthier snacks during a recent road trip. However, we didn't get round to eating them so I thought I'd use them to make flapjacks. These are really crunchy and chunky and I loved the addition of the fruits, nuts and seeds.  

 adding the fruit, nut and seed mix 

 I used my individual loaf tray to get chunky flapjacks 

Makes 6 large, chunky flapjacks
150g butter
125g golden caster sugar
50g golden syrup
225g porridge oats
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
200g dried fruit, nut and seed mix

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a medium sized pan. 
• In a medium sized bowl, mix the oats, cinnamon and flour.
• Add the oat mixture to the butter mixture and stir.
• Add in the fruit, nut and seed mix and sitr well. 
• Spoon into the baking tray (you can use a shallow baking tin) and level the top with a spatula.
• Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown. 
• Cut into squares before serving (if you used a shallow baking tin). 

Flapjacks

I finally got to try a recipe from Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy. I picked flapjacks as I was baking them for a bake sale event and wanted something simple that would appeal to the masses.  I omitted the ground ginger and lemon zest from her recipe and just made them plain. They are really easy to make and delicious. I'm sure you can make many variations by adding fruits and/or nuts or drizzling with chocolate. The possibilities are endless! What's your favourite flapjack? 

melt butter, sugar and golden syrup.

 pack it down in the baking tray

freshly baked

 delicious! I personally love the end bits :)

175g butter

175g muscovado sugar

175g golden syrup

350g oats

Optional

finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

pinch of ground ginger

• Preheat the oven to 150C. Grease and lie and 20cm square baking tin. 
• Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat. 
• Dip a brush in the butter and brush the baking tin with a little bit of it. 
• Add the golden syrup and sugar to the butter and heat gently.
• Once the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted, remove from the heat and stir in the oats. Add lemon zest and ginger if using. 
• Pack the mixture into the baking tin and squash down. 
• Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, allow to cool for 15 minutes then turn out on to a chopping board and cut into squares. 



Chocolate Chip Flapjacks

Final offering for the Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee Morning are these delectable chocolate chip flapjacks. I've not made flapjacks before and they looked a little liquid when they came out of the oven but firmed up easily enough. I made the mistake of not letting the mixture cool completely so my chocolate chips did melt a little but I just added more in! 

ready to go in the oven 

yummy! 

back left at the coffee morning - not much to look at but tasted good :) 

225g butter

225g demerara sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

275g rolled oats

100g plain chocolate chips

• Preheat the oven to 160C.
• Melt the butter in a pan with the sugar and syrup and then stir in the oats. 
• Mix well and then leave to cool before stirring in the chocolate chips. 
• Note: Do make sure that the flapjack mixture is quite cool before you add the chocolate chips or they will simply melt into the mixture instead of staying whole. 
• Turn into the prepared tin and press flat with a palette knife or back of a spoon. 
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 35 minutes or until pale golden brown. 
• Remove from the oven and then leave to cool for about 10 minutes. 
• Mark into 24 squares and leave to finish cooling in the tin.