Oat slices

Melt together:
125 g margarine
2 tbs honey or golden syrup

Stir in:
1 - 1 1/2 cup oats
1 cup mixed seeds eg pumpkin, sunflower, linseed
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup self-raising flour
2 teaspoons ginger, optional
1 large tablespoon ground flaxseed
1/2 cup coconut optional

Bake in lamington tin or two small 20cm square tins for 15 - 20 minutes.

Adapted from Australia's best recipes

Blackberry Bakewell flapjack

 Adapted from https://donnadundas.co.uk/ recipe for Cherry Bakewell flapjacks

Ingredients

• 200g Oats
• 60g Ground Almonds
• 90g Soft Light Brown Sugar
• 90g Golden Syrup
• 130g Butter or Margarine - Melted
• 1 tsp Almond Extract
• 4tbsp Blackberry Jam

Instructions

1. Grease and line a cake tin and preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Mix oats, sugar, and ground almonds together in a large mixing bowl
3. Add the almond extract, golden syrup and melted butter and stir together until the oats are all wet
4. Tip half of this mix into the cake tin and use the back of a spoon or your fingers to press down and out to the edges, so it’s level and covers the tin
5. Spoon on the jam and spread evenly
6. Tip on the remaining oats and flatten and spread out until the jam is covered
7. Sprinkle over flaked almonds.
8. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until the almonds are toasted and the oats have browned.
9. Melt the white chocolate in a small pan and drizzle over the top of the flapjack

Apple flapjack

Ingredients

250g (8oz) butter
250g (6oz) caster sugar - reduced from 8oz, try reducing further
175g (6oz) golden syrup
425g (15oz) porridge oats
2 apples, peeled and grated

Method

STEP 1
Preheat oven to fan160°C. Oil and line base of a 20x30cm (8x12in) cake tin with baking parchment.

STEP 2
Melt butter, caster sugar and golden syrup together in a pan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in oats and apples.

STEP 3
Spread mixture in tin, pressing down HARD and bake for 20-25 minutes UNTIL GOLDEN BROWN AND FIRM. Cut into 12-14 bars; allow to cool before turning out of the tin.

Note: a very moist bar because of the apple. Could try cooking slightly first, then draining.

Flapjack

Have started baking for Trinity Cafe, once a month. Oh, the responsibility. I follow the recipe they gave me quite slavishly... so far, so good...

Crunchy, traditional flapjacks. Do not overbake.

Ingredients
10 oz butter
9 oz demerara sugar/= or mixed white and brown
4oz golden syrup
18 oz porridge oats

12 x 9 inch Swiss roll traybake or roasting tin. Line with well-greased silicone or baking parchment.

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees C/Fan 140 degrees C/Gas 3.

Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a large pan.
Stir in oats.
Mix well.
Turn into well-greased  tin and firmly press flat with a palette knife or the back of a spoon.

Bake in pre-heated oven for 30 - 35 minutes or until pale golden brown.
Remove from oven, leave to cool for 10 minutes.
Mark into squares, leave to finish cooling in the tin. (Cut off edges if slightly over-baked.)

Microwave flapjack

Melt together 75g butter, 1 large tablespoon golden syrup and 50g sugar (mixed brown and white)

Stir in approx 200g oats, or a little more up to 250g.
Add handful sunflower seeds, sultanas, etc.

Bake in square silicone tin in microwave for 5 minutes, perhaps 5 1/2, leave to cool  a little, mark into squares and cool completely.

Gilly's Flapjacks

My friend Gilly is just so much fun. I knew her when she was still a parent, before she became a  valued teaching assistant. She' supposed to be in charge of Healthy Eating at school, and she does a marvellous job. She has been expertly running the school cookery club for years.  This flapjack recipe is the best - and, I have discovered, the most foolproof (I have a long history of failed flapjack, which sounds like a contradiction in terms but in my case isn't).

I've messed it around a little, but the first four measurements are accurate and essential. Leave out the flour for a crisper end product. As for the dried fruit... hmm, could even add chocolate. Or nuts. Or all kinds of seeds....

Ingredients

125g (4oz) butter
125g (4oz) sugar
125g (4oz) (6 tablespoons) golden syrup
225g (8oz) porridge oats
60g (2 oz) self raising flour
70g (2oz) sultanas or raisins or possibly even any other kind of dried fruit. Who knows?
25 - 50g sunflower seeds.

Melt first three ingredients gently together. DO NOT BOIL. Stir into remaining ingredients, mix well.

Put the mixture into a greased baking tray, pressing down evenly with the back of a spoon or the flat of a wet hand.

Bake at 160 degrees C for 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown around the edges.

Cut into squares while still warm. Leave to cool, then mark out squares again and ease out of the tin. It will be deliciously sticky and glue-like.