Granny’s Cook book.

Even though it’s quite hot today I decided to cook and I’m not sorry either.

Sure, it’s hotter in here than in the rings of hell but it’s worth it to me to have happy kids.

My recipe today is from England, it’s a name you’ll know but it’s not a pancake as you might think from the name, flapjacks. In Britain these are a snack bar and they are so yummy I made plain ones today, but you can also put nuts in them or raisins, chocolate polka dots, it’s a long list.

Lots of people still make their own and they are huge favourite to eat on the go so they sell well in kiosks and snack bars, shops and garages where you want something that will give you and energy boost. The oats give you a slow release of goodness along with the sugar to kick start any day or lunchtime. They travel well in lunchboxes and are good for picnics. I swear our kids could eat their own body weight in them.

Flapjacks

3oz /75g margarine or butter

2 tablespoons of golden syrup

3oz/75g of brown sugar

5oz /150g of brown sugar (or white if you don’t have brown)

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Method

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F 180C or gas mark 4

Lightly grease with a spray or use margarine in a shallow 7inch/18cm square tin.

Next put your syrup and butter or margarine into a saucepan and melt them together over a medium heat, take it off the heat and place on the counter on a tea towel to stop it slipping about too much. Tip in your porridge oats, the vanilla and the sugar and stir to combine, it won’t take very long to come together.

Spread the mixture into your pre-greased tin and press it down a little.

Pop it into the oven and cook for approx. 20 mins watching for the edges not to burn as they can sometimes. If they do use some tin foil around the edge of the tin to stop it burning before the middles cooked. I wait till they are a delicious light golden brown, maximum flavour there.

Most recipes say let it stand for five mins. in the tin, but when it’s hot you need to give it longer to set otherwise you’ll end up with something that looks a bit like granola.

So, let it sit until it starts to firm up, mark it into bars and then I pop mine into the fridge it usually comes out of the baking tin easily enough because it’s greased. I break up the bars and it’s ready to go. I would say that flapjacks improve with keeping but in our house, they never get long enough to improve.

Flapjacks are a nice snack, they fill you up and don’t cost that much to make, they also pretty quick to whip up and of course you can add dried fruit or nuts or chocolate polka dots like I said before, whatever you fancy. Enjoy!