Cherry and Coconut 'British' Flapjacks

So I learnt something new about flapjacks recently-apparently British flapjacks are different to American flapjacks. The ones I’m always baking are British flapjacks, while American flapjacks are what we call scotch pancakes.

Anyway, more cycling=more flapjacks. This time, cherry and coconut flavour.

Ingredients

2 egg yolks

3 tablespoons golden syrup

100ml milk

200g porridge oats

50g desiccated coconut

50g glace cherries

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Mix together the wet ingredients and stir in the dry ingredients. Pour into a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and bake for 10-15mins.

Chocolate and Ginger Flapjacks

I bake a batch of flapjacks most weeks, sometimes even twice a week. They’re great cycling snacks as they’re easy to carry, they don’t fall apart, they provide plenty of energy and they taste good. But if there are any left over, they go down well with a cup of tea too.
Additions to the basic ‘oats and syrup’ recipe depend on what’s in the baking cupboard at the time (yes I now have so many baking ingredients that they have their own cupboard). The flavour of this week was ‘Chocolate and Ginger’.

Ingredients

2 eggs

3 tablespoons golden syrup

50ml milk

200g oats

1 heaped dessert spoon cocoa

1 tablespoon glace ginger

1 tsp ground ginger

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Mix together the wet ingredients, stir in the dry ingredients. Pour into a baking tin lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for 10-15mins.

Blondies

From brownies to blondies, just to be fair. Again adapted from Linda Collister’s book, Chocolate Baking.

Ingredients

200g light brown muscovado sugar

1 tsp real vanilla essence

3 large eggs, beaten

200g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

A large pinch of salt

Walnuts and dark chocolate to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Beat the eggs together. Add all the other ingredients and mix. Pour into a baking tin. Decorate with walnuts and dark chocolate broken into pieces. Bake for 20mins.

Very Chocolatey Chocolate Brownies

One Christmas two of my brothers bought me chocolate baking books and the third bought me some fancy chocolate. They must think I like chocolate or something?! Knowing that, believe it or not this is the first time I’ve actually made chocolate brownies. This recipe was adapted from one of the Christmas present baking books-‘Chocolate Baking’ by Linda Collister. Incidentally, the same author who wrote The Great British Bake Off cookery book. So it seems everything I’m baking at the moment originally came from Linda Collister. Anyway, this recipe was really easy to follow and the brownies turned out well. Although I’ll bake them for less time in future (baked for 35mins this time) as they weren’t quite as squidgy in the middle as I was hoping.

Ingredients

140g butter

4 eggs, beaten

140g light brown muscovado sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

Pinch of salt

75g cocoa powder

140g plain flour

50g walnuts

50g pecan nuts

Makes 16

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Melt the butter in a pan and leave to cool while preparing the rest of the mixture. Beat the eggs together then add the sugar and mix. Add the butter and vanilla and mix. Stir in the flour, cocoa and salt until combined, don’t over mix. Stir in the nuts. Pour into a baking tin and bake at 180°C for 30mins.

Sultana and Walnut Flapjacks

I seem to have reverted back to my old (boring) baking ways recently baking only flapjacks or banana bread. They’re just so quick and easy being the main reasons I think, closely followed by also tasting good. I’ll have to get my Great British Bake Off cook book out again soon and try some more adventurous baking again. Especially after watching The Great British Bake Off Masterclass with Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry the other night!

Ingredients

200g oats

50g sultanas

50g walnuts

1/2 tsp mixed spice

3 tbsp golden syrup

50ml milk

2 egg yolks

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Mix together the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. Bake at 180°C for 15mins.

On the bread maker front, I’ve now also tried: the Seeded Wholemeal Loaf; Olive Loaf; Maple and Pecan Nut Loaf; and Honey and Sunflower Loaf (we get through a lot of bread). The best of these was the Olive Loaf which was tasty and had a lovely soft texture. The worst was the Seeded Wholemeal Loaf which turned out quite dense-I’ll add less water next time which will hopefully make it lighter. The Maple and Honey loaves tasted nice although the Maple loaf was a bit too sweet (even for sweet-tooth me!).

Olive Loaf