RECIPE: Gooey apple flapjacks.

Mmm sticky, sweet, gooey flapjacks bursting with apples and full of oaty goodness.

These flapjacks are so simple to make yet seriously delicious. They may not look particularly special, but oh, how they make up for that in taste!

I made these flapjacks with the plan to share them with my new housemates and take into work for my new colleagues tomorrow. There's nothing like trying to make people like you with baked goods! But now I've tried the flapjacks and I really don't want to share... (But I will.)

Man, they smell good, if I do say so myself!

I'm not sure if flapjacks are a particularly British thing, but after trying to explain what they were to my Belgian and French housemates, the best translation they could come up with was 'gâteau', AKA cake. And it's just not a cake, is it, people?

Well whatever it is, it's delicious. To quote one of my new housemates: "C'est très très bon" (and I don't think that really needs a translation, do you?)

Biggest piece for myself, obvs.

You know when you just know something's going to be good as you're making it? That's what happened with these babies right here. I whacked the tin outside in the garden pretty much as soon as they came out of the oven as I was that impatient to tuck in. You really do need to wait for it to cool though otherwise those flapjacks will just crumble to delicious oaty appley crumbs. (Yummy, sure, but not what we're going for.)

Instead of using golden syrup or honey, I used a new Belgian discovery to give these flapjacks their beautiful squidginess: Sirop de Liège.

I'd never heard of it, but it's 65% concentrated fruit juice (apples, pears and dates), sugar and a bit of gellifying stuff. The sirop is thick and fruity which adds a wonderful flavour and texture to my flapjacks while also making them a little healthier. However, if you can't find any, golden syrup or honey should do the job just as well and still deliver delicious results.

Apple + oats + cinnamon = a bit of a winning combo in my books, and I love the texture contrast of the soft apple and the squidgy oat mix in these flapjacks. I also think Golden Deliciouses are amongst the best apples to go for as they're sweet and soften up easily when cooked.

In classic student fashion, I didn't have an appropriately-sized tin, so this is what I did:

And d'you know what? It totally worked! I realise not being able to specify a particular tin size may not be the most helpful thing in the world, but as my experience has shown, it doesn't really matter. Just make sure you get the mix to a couple of centimetres thick and press down firmly with the back of a spoon, smoothing the top as best you can.

So quick, so easy, SO yummy.


Ingredients

100g unsalted butter
75g caster sugar
2 tbsp Sirop de Liège (or golden syrup or honey)
200g oats
1 apple (I used a Golden Delicious as they cook easily)
1 tsp ground cinnamon


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a baking tin (see above spiel for my advice on sizing.)

Sugar comes in a pourable carton in Belgium. Weird, but I like it.

Over a low heat, melt the butter, sugar and syrup together, stirring occasionally until you have a beautiful thick, smooth, gloopy mixture.

2. While the syrup mix is melting, peel, core and chop your apple into little pieces.

Once the syrup mix is all melted, remove from the heat and stir in the apple chunks and cinnamon.

Add the oats and stir until well-combined.

3. Spoon into your baking tin (don't worry if your tin is too big like mine was) until you have a layer around 2-3cm thick and smooth the back as best as you can with the back of a spoon. Bake for 15-20 minutes until just turning golden brown on top and round the edges.

4. Once done, remove from the oven and carefully go round the sides with a knife before leaving to cool. Cut into rough chunks before it's fully cool, but leave in the tin to firm up until practically room temperature. Serve with a cuppa and enjoy!

Now I want another piece...