Wednesday 27 April 2011

Cranberry and Apricot Flapjacks

This is another variation of my basic flapjack recipe, featuring my favourite combination of dried fruit - cranberries and apricots.

This time I cut down the butter to see what effect it has. The flapjacks were crisper than usual and had a slight tendency to crumble at the edges, but overall it was an acceptable change. CT doesn't eat flapjacks, so I had no concerns about using butter in the first place. These were made primarily for FB's lunchbox - she's quite happy to make up a batch of Dan Lepard's marmalade flapjacks, when she has time, but although they are very tasty I find them a little too soft and crumbly for my taste.

Ingredients:
200g butter, 100g golden syrup, 150g light muscovado sugar; 350g rolled oats, approx. 150g dried fruit, nuts and seeds*.

Method:
Melt the butter, sugar and syrup together, either in a bowl in the microwave or a pan on the hob. Remove from the heat when the butter has melted. Stir in the other ingredients. Press the mixture into a 12 x 8" tin lined with baking parchment and bake at 180C for 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before marking into bars, but cool completely before removing from tin.

* I used 50g each of dried cranberries and chopped apricots, 20g each of chopped toasted hazelnuts and pumpkin seeds and two tablespoons of sesame seeds.

5 comments:

Caroline said...

Love the combo - dried cranberries are definitely a favourite here, along with the apricots too. Wonder why I've never thought to combine them? I bet these would be good paired with dark chocolate in a flapjack too. Hmm, it's been ages since I made flapjack...

Suelle said...

Dark chocolate would be a great addition, C. Either added chocolate chips or maybe even half-dipping the bars in melted chocolate.

Caroline said...

They both sound good options!

Anonymous said...

Suelle, I've been intrigued with flapjacks for a while now - we don't have them here - I guess out closest equivalent would be a muesli bar.

I must try making something similar - thanks for the inspiration!

Suelle said...

Hi Celia - a muesli bar would be very similar to a flapjack, although a real flapjack uses only rolled oats as the cereal part. I think that a flapjack should be soft and chewy, and not crumbly, but some people prefer a crisper bar.