I am very much a purist when it comes to flapjacks. For me, oats, brown sugar, syrup and butter in a certain ratio (the one of my childhood) make up a proper flapjack. Flour has absolutely no place in a flapjack but I am prepared to make an exception for dried fruits, dessicated coconut and ground almonds! These are so delicious that I had eaten half of them before they were properly out of the tin on Saturday afternoon (by which time it was dark so no photos) and almost all the rest disappeared at my son’s rugby training (an early start on the Sunday morning so again, no photos). By the time I had the opportunity and the light to take a photo at lunchtime on Sunday there was only one left, hence the not very good photo again… The good news is that the days are starting to get longer again and my camera should be back in action very soon. I am hoping my photography will improve accordingly…

One of my Christmas presents this year was a Donna Hay recipe book from my mum, “The New Classics”. I hadn’t heard of Donna Hay until recently and once I had it seemed that I had been the only person who hadn’t. She is an Australian food stylist, author and magazine editor and her cookbooks are as beautiful as you might expect for someone with her background. The baking section in “The New Classics” isn’t huge but I now have a list of things I’d like to make, quite a few of them containing dates, for some reason. This fruit flapjack recipe is adapted from a recipe called “muesli slice” and I replaced the SR flour in the original recipe with ground almonds and the dried apples with dried cherries. The quantities seem a little random but the original measures are cups and luckily the UK version of the book has weights as well. These are definitely healthier than a traditional flapjack and I might even be forced to say tastier as well…

Not your average flapjack…

Recipe

Ingredients

125g butter

90g golden syrup

100g rolled oats

95g sultanas

85g dried cranberries

75g chopped dried apricots

40g dessicated coconut

30g dried cherries (or dried apples)

75g ground almonds (or SR flour)

90g soft brown sugar

Method

Set the oven to 180ºC and grease and line a 20cm x 30cm baking tin with baking parchment. I used greaseproof paper and found it impossible to get some of it off the edges (one of the reasons I was forced to eat so much of it while cutting it up).

Put the butter and syrup in a saucepan and heat until the butter has melted.

Put all the other ingredients into a bowl.

All the dry ingredients go into a bowl

Mix well to combine:

Add the butter and syrup mixture and mix well again:

Tip the mixture into the baking tin and press down firmly so it is well packed down. It is a good idea to grease the back of a metal spoon and press it down with that.

Ready to bake

Bake for around 20-25 minutes, until golden.

Allow to cool in the tin

When the flapjack is cold remove from the tin, remove the baking parchment and cut into squares, bars or triangles. And if you are lucky they might even last more than a day.

Categories: Baking, Biscuits and Cookies, Fruit, Recipes

Tags: dessicated coconut, Donna Hay, dried apricots, dried cherries, dried cranberries, dried fruit, flapjack, ground almonds, oats, sultanas