Monday, August 23, 2010

Flapjacks:UK back-to-schoolers, put this in their lunch boxes instead of cold pop-tarts

I had a request for a flapjack recipe that could be made on Sunday nights and put in lunchboxes Monday to Friday.

This one is endlessly adaptable, depending on what kind of roughage and nuts and seeds your children will not pick out. The condensed milk ensures it does not turn brittle and keeps it tender. I would imagine industrial versions use corn syrup and glucose for this function. If you don't use the nuts and seeds given here, you will need to use about 50g of other dry or moist ingredients to get the right ratio of oaty goodness to textural adorment.

Oven at 160 degrees C

125g butter
100g caster sugar
ah, now, dessertspoonsful of golden syrup - there is no metric conversion, you just need three of them (heat the spoon first and it will slip off luxuriantly)
1 dessertspoon of condensed milk

Melt all this together gently in a pan then stir in
200g of quick cook oats
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
1 tablespoon of poppy seeds
25g chopped nuts of your choice
a pinch of salt

Line a 20cm square tin with baking parchment and pour in the mixture. With wet finger-tip press it in to the corners and drop in a couple of times on the counter top to settle it and bake it for 20 minutes or until the edges are looking golden not brown. Turn off the oven and leave it in there for another 10 minutes. Take it out and mark out portion divisions before it cools down.

I haven't made any of this for a while as one of my children would be thoroughly affronted if I suggested he eat it. However, if I could wrap it in LCM livery I would include it in his lunchbox. So here is a picture of a poppy from whence the seeds come.



Come to think of it, Lemon poppyseed and yogurt cake is an absolute corker. Available on request

1 comment:

  1. Thanks! Like the condensed milk idea. I am much happier since I discovered a brand that is not Nestle, readily available in the UK shops. One problem, it only comes in tins, so when I have used the one dessertsponful, what will I do with the rest? Oh dear, I shall have to eat it out of the tin.

    As for poppy seeds, I don't think so, but have added pistachios to my basic recipe with good effect.

    ReplyDelete