Cooking with Children :: Fruity Flapjack Recipe

These fruity flapjacks make great snacks for hungry toddlers because, although they are sweet, the oats have lots of slow-release energy to keep them going. Lara and I cooked flapjacks together - it was our best joint cooking effort yet and the result was YUMMY! We chose to adapt a Mary Berry recipe to make our flapjacks with dried fruit and honey (usually I would use golden syrup). We had plenty of Manuka honey in the house which is known for its medicinal qualities and this meant that our sneaky afternoon tea was also helping to ward off colds!

INGREDIENTS
400g porridge oats
200g butter or marge
200g honey
200g brown sugar (ideally demerara but if not then a 50-50 mix of dark brown sugar with caster sugar works well)
40g raisins
20g glace cherries

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to about 180-190 degrees. Using a baking tray that has some depth to it (ours was about 20cm by 30cm by 2cm deep), line the tray with greaseproof paper and then grease the paper well.


2. Measure out all of the ingredients and then chop the glace cherries into quarters





3. In a large saucepan, gently heat the butter, sugar and honey until the sugar has disolved into the melted butter gloop. You'll see I've become brave enough to let Lara join me at the hob now but I think she was a bit wary of the hot sticky mixture.





4. Take the mixture off the heat and then mix in the dried fruit and oats and stir until everything is well-covered in the liquid.


5. Pour the mix into the lined baking tray and then flatten it well (Lara LOVED this bit and even invented a song about it), making sure to push it into the corners. Heat in the oven for about 15-17 minutes.





6. When the flapjacks come out they should be golden and still very soft. Before they cool, score the top of the flapjack to make it easier to break once it has cooled.