Five Flapjack Flavours for Cybermummy

You’ll have to excuse me. The past few weeks have been rather frenetic due to this and this and it has taken me longer than promised to share this Cybermummy flapjack recipe in FIVE flavours and host a giveaway for my Cybermummy sponsor, Flahavan’s.

I’ve also been doing my first ever edited movie, a 3 minute film in which I mostly sound like Joyce Grenfell whilst Ted helps make flapjacks.

This video is being submitted to Cafe Bebe’s Just Vlog It event, which this month is on the theme of blogging or summer. Not sure this is what was expected but for a food blogger this is just part of what goes on behind the scenes. Maybe my next video can be about food styling and photography?!

For several days after, whenever I asked Ted what he wanted for dinner, the answer was “flapjack”.

Late night preparations!

So why all this flapjack fixation? I decided I would like to attend Cybermummy, only since I’d just been on a food blogging conference I was unsure how my husband would respond to me disappearing for another weekend, especially forking out for a ticket.  After some conferring with Alison at Deer Baby I sought a sponsor and happily, Flahavans were delighted to help.

If you’re not familiar with them, Flahavans are Ireland’s leading oats producer and are now available in the UK. As well as bags of oats they also do timesaving microwave porridge sachets and pots. Now that I’ve mastered flapjacks I intend to try out my own oat cakes and using them in crumble or muffin toppings.

My husband helped cut my cards up and wrap… under protest.

I have TEN goodie boxes of Flahavan’s products for readers in the UK to enjoy.  To enter, please leave a comment below this post no later than midnight BST Sunday 18th July 2010.  The winner will be chosen by random.org on Monday 19th July and the winners’ names listed on this blog in the first post after all ten have responded. Anyone who doesn’t respond by midnight BST Wednesday 21st July will forfeit their goodie box and a new name will be chosen.

If you are not using a blog address or an email address to leave your comment then please email me your details at sarah AT maisoncupcake DOT com

The method is the same for all five flavours so I am showing the ingredients per flavour under their respective photos and then you can follow the instructions below.

Recipes were adapted from several sources; Mary Berry’s Baking Bible, The Sainsbury Book of Teatime Favourites by Brian Binns and Green and Black’s Chocolate Recipes by Caroline Jeremy.

Each recipe makes 20-24 bars if you use a 30x23cm (12×9 inch) tray bake or roasting tin. The plain flapjack recipe uses fewer oats but strangely seemed to produce the same quantity of bars.

225g unsalted butter

225g demerara sugar

75g golden syrup

225g porridge oats

50g dessicated coconut

50g dried sour cherries

(dried sour cherries are now widely available in supermarket baking aisles)

350g jumbo oats,

(half of which are quickly whooshed in food processor to break up)

3 tablespoons golden syrup

350g unsalted butter

175g soft brown sugar

175g muscovado sugar

6 tablespoons cocoa powder

75g dried blueberries

50g dark or milk chocolate chips

225g unsalted butter

225g demerara sugar

75g golden syrup

275g porridge oats

50g white chocolate chunks

50g dried strawberries

225g unsalted butter

225g demerara sugar

75g golden syrup

275g porridge oats

100g raisins

2 tsp powdered cinnamon

350g butter

50g golden syrup

250g dark soft brown sugar

500g oats

100g dessicated coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 160c/Gas Mark 3.

2. Melt the butter, sugar(s) and golden syrup in a small saucepan on a low to medium heat.

3. Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. If you are using chocolate chips you can save these to press into the surface of the bars before they go in the oven but it’s up to you.

4. Grease and line a 30 x 23cm or 12 x 9 tray bake or roasting tin with baking parchment paper.

5. Pour the melted butter/sugar/syrup on the dry ingredients and stir until well incorporated.

6. Pour the mixture into your tin. Spread to the edges and pack the mix flat with clean fingers to compress it a little. This prevents crumbling.

7. Bake for 20-30 minutes in the middle of the oven.  Ovens vary a lot so I’d check your flapjacks every five minutes after 20 minutes until you are happy with the colour.

8. Allow to cool in the tin before cutting into fingers.  Keeps for one week in an airtight tin.