Another re-post today. This is a recipe I went through a phase of making every week and eating for breakfast at work – they were excellent. I fell out of the habit of making them on a Sunday, and breakfast has never been the same since…

I’ve never heard of a layered flapjack. As far as I am concerned right now, I’ve invented them. I’m sure if I were to do any kind of research I’d find out that is not the case, but I prefer to live in blissful ignorance.

I wanted to make something that was going to be moderately healthy to take into work for breakfast. The canteen runs a breakfast bar until 11am, and many’s the morning I’ve been there at 10.55, unable to resist the lure of sausages, bacon or even just buttered toast for that extra five minutes. Or a scone – I’d never heard of a scone as a breakfast food till I started working here, and everyone seems to think it’s pretty normal. It’s delicious, I’ll grant you, but for breakfast? A scone? A delicious, sweet, buttered scone? Actually I think I’m beginning to get it. This from the woman who’s eaten all kinds of foods for breakfast; for a number of years I think my body though that 10p crisps were actually cornflakes, I started the day with them so often. Still, there’s something decadent about having a scone for breakfast. That and you get covered in flour which you can’t shift for the rest of the day. It’s kind of like a secret handshake, the floury marks. Like you can look at another person and think ‘you had a scone’, and they’ll just give you this tiny nod and walk on past…

So, instead of leaving myself easy prey to scones or rolls and sausage, I decided to make flapjacks. I also liked the idea of having a layer of oat biscuit, then a layer of jam, then another layer of oat biscuit. On a trip to the supermarket yesterday, I stocked up on some fruit and veg to try to kick start a more varied and healthful diet, so I had a punnet of blueberries to hand, and also two of the smallest Granny Smith apples you’ve ever seen in your life, which had been knocking about the flat for some time and were pretty much past their best for eating, but I thought would serve well as part of a jam. Plus, after the success of the redcurrant jam, I was curious to see if I could do it again. Here, then, is my attempt at transcribing the recipe for layered flapjacks with apple and blueberry jam.

Ingredients:

• 150g blueberries
• 2 small Granny Smith apples
• squeeze lemon juice
• 2 tsp jam sugar
• 1/2 tsp strawberry balsamic condiment
• 250g oats
• 1 cup of soya milk
• 1 tbsp light margarine
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• brown sugar to sprinkle over the top

To make the jam:

• Peel, core and finely chop the apples. Half any large blueberries then add all the fruit to a pot with a squeeze of lemon juice.
• Stir over a high heat until the fruit has broken down and is soft. Not to get going about colours again, but the change from the white apple and blue blueberries to the rich, vibrant purple they end up is really something. It’s like beetroot in colour, extremely rich, yet when you slice a blueberry in half it’s kind of white in the middle. The wonders of nature, eh?
• Add the balsamic condiment and sugar, then boil rapidly for ten minutes, stirring to avoid sticking. Set aside.

To make the flapjacks:

• Put the oats into a large microwavable bowl, and stir in the milk and sugar. Mix well then heat for a minute, stir again, heat for another minute, stir again and heat for one last minute. The mixture will be extremely sticky.
• Grease a 7″ square baking tin and layer slightly over half the oat mixture on the bottom. It will help you to spread it if the spoon or your hands are damp, to stop the mixture sticking *quite* so much.
• Layer the jam over the flapjack base, leaving a border round the edges. I found I had about a tbsp of jam left over, which I’ve put in the fridge till I can figure out what to do with it apart from throw it out.
• Using damp hands (preferably your own), drop small amounts of the remaining flapjack dough over the surface, trying to cover as much as possible. When it’s all been distributed, re-dampen hands and smooth the surface over as much as possible – you can see in the pic above that some gaps will remain. A solution to this would be to use more oats, but the cupboard is bare in my house, now.
• Sprinkle brown sugar over the top of the finished product.
• Bake the flapjacks at 200C for about 20 minutes, or until slightly golden and the brown sugar has caramelised.

I let them cool for about ten minutes in the tin, then turned out and turned over to let the underside cool and dry, as it was pretty stodgy. Still letting that happen so not sure if it’ll come out OK or if I should have turned them onto a cooling rack more quickly, or turned the whole thing over and put under the grill to crisp up, or used less milk or what. This is the first time I’ve made flapjacks, as with everything else the more practise I get the better the results will be.

The whole tin gave me nine good sized pieces. I’m just going to do the calorie maths… It looks like a total of about 130 calories for each flapjack, and 3.5g of fat, although I’m not sure if one is going to be enough or if it’ll be two. Should be, oats are supposed to be filling, right? Right??

I will NOT eat scones for breakfast… I will NOT eat scones for breakfast…

I’ve never heard of a layered flapjack. As far as I am concerned right now, I’ve invented them. I’m sure if I were to do any kind of research I’d find out that is not the case, but I prefer to live in blissful ignorance.

I wanted to make something that was going to be moderately healthy to take into work for breakfast. The canteen runs a breakfast bar until 11am, and many’s the morning I’ve been there at 10.55, unable to resist the lure of sausages, bacon or even just buttered toast for that extra five minutes. Or a scone – I’d never heard of a scone as a breakfast food till I started working here, and everyone seems to think it’s pretty normal. It’s delicious, I’ll grant you, bu for breakfast? A scone? A delicious, sweet, buttered scone? Actually I think I’m beginning to get it. This from the woman who’s eaten all kinds of foods for breakfast; for a number of years I think my body though that 10p crisps were actually cornflakes, I started the day with them so often. Still, there’s something decadent about having a scone for breakfast. That and you get covered in flour which you can’t shift for the rest of the day. It’s kind of like a secret handshake, the floury marks. Like you can look at another person and think ‘you had a scone’, and they’ll just give you this tiny nod and walk on past…

So, instead of leaving myself easy prey to scones or rolls and sausage, I decided to make flapjacks. I also liked the idea of having a layer of oat biscuit, then a layer of jam, then another layer of oat biscuit. On a trip to the supermarket yesterday, I stocked up on some fruit and veg to try to kick start a more varied and healthful diet, so I had a punnet of blueberries to hand, and also two of the smallest Granny Smith apples you’ve ever seen in your life, which had been knocking about the flat for some time and were pretty much past their best for eating, but I thought would serve well as part of a jam. Plus, after the success of the redcurrant jam, I was curious to see if I could do it again. Here, then, is my attempt at transcribing the recipe for layered flapjacks with apple and blueberry jam.

Ingredients:

• 150g blueberries
• 2 small Granny Smith apples
• squeeze lemon juice
• 2 tsp jam sugar
• 1/2 tsp strawberry balsamic condiment
• 250g oats
• 1 cup of soya milk
• 1 tbsp light margarine
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• brown sugar to sprinkle over the top

To make the jam:

• Peel, core and finely chop the apples. Half any large blueberries then add all the fruit to a pot with a squeeze of lemon juice.
• Stir over a high heat until the fruit has broken down and is soft. Not to get going about colours again, but the change from the white apple and blue blueberries to the rich, vibrant purple they end up is really something. It’s like beetroot in colour, extremely rich, yet when you slice a blueberry in half it’s kind of white in the middle. The wonders of nature, eh?
• Add the balsamic condiment and sugar, then boil rapidly for ten minutes, stirring to avoid sticking. Set aside.

To make the flapjacks:

• Put the oats into a large microwavable bowl, and stir in the milk and sugar. Mix well then heat for a minute, stir again, heat for another minute, stir again and heat for one last minute. The mixture will be extremely sticky.
• Grease a 7″ square baking tin and layer slightly over half the oat mixture on the bottom. It will help you to spread it if the spoon or your hands are damp, to stop the mixture sticking *quite* so much.
• Layer the jam over the flapjack base, leaving a border round the edges. I found I had about a tbsp of jam left over, which I’ve put in the fridge till I can figure out what to do with it apart from throw it out.
• Using damp hands (preferably your own), drop small amounts of the remaining flapjack dough over the surface, trying to cover as much as possible. When it’s all been distributed, re-dampen hands and smooth the surface over as much as possible – you can see in the pic above that some gaps will remain. A solution to this would be to use more oats, but the cupboard is bare in my house, now.
• Sprinkle brown sugar over the top of the finished product.
• Bake the flapjacks at 200C for about 20 minutes, or until slightly golden and the brown sugar has caramelised.

I let them cool for about ten minutes in the tin, then turned out and turned over to let the underside cool and dry, as it was pretty stodgy. Still letting that happen so not sure if it’ll come out OK or if I should have turned them onto a cooling rack more quickly, or turned the whole thing over and put under the grill to crisp up, or used less milk or what. This is the first time I’ve made flapjacks, as with everything else the more practise I get the better the results will be.

The whole tin gave me nine good sized pieces. I’m just going to do the calorie maths… It looks like a total of about 130 calories for each flapjack, and 3.5g of fat, although I’m not sure if one is going to be enough or if it’ll be two. Should be, oats are supposed to be filling, right? Right??

I will NOT eat scones for breakfast… I will NOT eat scones for breakfast…