Sticky Plum Flapjacks

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

I have to say that I’m really enjoying all the fruits that are available at this time of year, especially ones that are free! I was at my Dad’s house on Sunday and his friend brought round a big bag of plums from her tree. I’m not sure what variety they were, but I quickly asked my Dad if I could take some home as I’d had this flapjack recipe from my BBC Good Food magazine in my folder for ages and I was just waiting to acquire some lovely plums to make it!

 

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:

Luckily I’d checked on the BBC Good Food website before making the flapjacks, as a lot of the reviews said the recipe contained way too much butter. So I followed the reviewer’s advice and I only used 200g instead of 350g of butter.

I only had about 2 Tablespoons of golden syrup so I made up the 3rd Tablespoon with honey. I didn’t have any walnuts so omitted them.

I used less sugar – 200g instead of 300g.

 

TASTE TEST:

Extremely yummy! The plums are indeed sticky and jammy and there’s just enough sweetness from the sugar to offset any sourness.

200g of butter was definitely sufficient!

 

The recipe below is how I made it, you can find the original here.

 

• Oven temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C
• Oven shelf: middle
• You will need: square 8-inch tin, lined with non-stick baking paper

 

• 450g fresh plums, halved, stoned and roughly sliced
• ½ tsp mixed spice
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 200g butter, plus extra for greasing
• 300g rolled porridge oats (not jumbo)
• 140g plain flour
• 2 Tablespoons golden syrup and 1 Tablespoon honey

 

Directions:

1. Heat oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C. Tip the plums into a bowl. Toss with the spice, 50g of the sugar and a small pinch of salt, then set aside to macerate.
2. Gently melt the butter in a saucepan. In a large bowl, mix the oats, flour and remaining sugar together, making sure there are no lumps of sugar, then stir in the melted butter and golden syrup/honey until everything is combined into a loose flapjack mixture.
3. Grease a square baking tin about 8 x 8 inches. Press half the oaty mix over the base of the tin, then tip over the plums and spread to make an even layer. Press the remaining oats over the plums so they are completely covered right to the sides of the tin. Bake for 45-50 mins (45 minutes is fine) until dark golden and starting to crisp a little around the edges.
4. Leave to cool completely, then cut into 18 little bars. Will keep in an airtight container for 2 days or can be frozen for up to a month.

Anzac Biscuits

 

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

 

These biscuits were traditionally baked by wives and mothers during the First World War and sent packed in food parcels to the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). They don’t contain any eggs so they survived the long journey. ANZAC Day is celebrated on 25th April.

 

They are delightfully chewy and the coconut provides a lovely toasty nutty tropical flavour and texture. They contain rolled oats so they are sort of in-keeping with our healthy eating regime, providing valuable fibre! Unfortunately, although coconut is actually part of a fruit, it's nutritionally classified as a nut so it doesn't count towards fruit and veg portions, but at least it contains similar nutrients to nuts!

 

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:

For my first batch I followed the recipe and used teaspoons of the biscuit mixture, but these turned out quite small and very thin. So for the second and third batch I made the balls about the size of a walnut and they were a better size and thickness (on the left of the photo). I increased the cooking time by a couple of minutes.

 

TASTE TEST:

They were incredibly easy to make and got big thumbs up from everyone. Steve’s Mum said she’d heard of Anzac biscuits from watching Home & Away and Neighbours! Steve said they’d be even nicer topped with melted chocolate.

 

 

• Makes: 24-28
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 3/325°F/170°C
• Oven shelf: middle
• Cooking time: 10 minutes per batch

 

Ingredients:

• 100g rolled oats
• 60g plain flour
• 45g desiccated coconut (I used Waitrose)
• 95g light brown sugar
• 75g butter
• 2 Tablespoons golden syrup
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 Tablespoon boiling water

 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 3/325°F/170°C.
2. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper/Magic liner.
3. Combine the oats, flour, coconut and sugar in a large bowl.
4. Place the butter and golden syrup in a small saucepan and melt over a medium heat, stirring until well mixed, then remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.
5. Mix the bicarbonate of soda with the Tablespoon of boiling water in a small cup, then add this to the melted butter and syrup. Tip the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.
6. Place teaspoons of the biscuit mixture onto the lined baking sheets, leaving about 5cm space between them so they can spread. Bake for 10 minutes for the smaller biscuits and 12 minutes for the larger ones, or until they are evenly golden brown.
7. Use a fish slice to lift the biscuits onto a wire rack to cool - they will be very soft but they will firm up as they cool down.

Apple and Blackberry Crumble

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

The crumble topping is more like the topping you have on an Apple Crisp, which is an American dessert. I used apples because we always have some apples sitting untouched in the fruit bowl and this is a perfect way to use up the ones that are starting to go a bit soft. I always prefer to use eating apples to cooking apples, as I think they’re naturally sweeter (and not so sharp so you don’t have to add so much sugar) and they keep their shape more, so you have something to bite into, rather than a spoonful of mush.

I went out into the garden and picked some blackberries that were overgrowing from next door’s garden. They’re bang in season now, so go out and look in a nearby hedgerow and you’ll probably spot some ripe for picking!

• Makes: 4 individual crumbles
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C
• Cooking time: 20 minutes (or 30 mins if doing 1 large dish)

Ingredients for the filling:

• 2 eating apples (I used Gala), peeled, cored and cut into bite size pieces
• big handful of blackberries (as many as you can pick!)
• 1-2 Tablespoons sugar (depends how sweet you like it)
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice (this is optional but if you’re making these in advance then I’d use it to stop the apples going brown)

Ingredients for the topping:

• 50g rolled oats
• 100g ground almonds
• 150g melted unsalted butter
• 50g plain flour
• 100g soft brown sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C.
2. Put the apples and blackberries in a small bowl and mix well with the sugar and lemon juice, if using.
3. Mix together all the topping ingredients together.
4. Distribute the fruit between 4 ramekins and then sprinkle over the topping, but don’t press it down too firmly.
5. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.

I bought this set of 4 ramekins from Amazon for £6.99. They are 3.5 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep, so the perfect size. They are blowtorch, dishwasher, microwave and oven safe. I plan to make crème brûlées in them next!

Yorkshire Parkin

MUNCH RATING: 1/5

I’ve never eaten this before, so I had no idea what it would be like. Parkin is essentially a northern version of gingerbread, but it tends to be more moist and it improves and gets stickier if left for 24 hours after baking. I don’t know how authentic this BBC Good Food recipe is, as it’s quite different to other Parkin recipes I’ve got (this one has oats in it, but no egg).

It is definitely a sticky cake and it was nicer served warm with hot custard! I’m not sure I’d make this again because it has a funny smell, which I can’t really describe! But I like my cakes to smell enticing so this isn’t one of my favourites by a long shot!

• Makes: 16 squares
• Prep time: 15 minutes
• Cook time: 45 minutes
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 2/300°F/150°C
• You will need: 8 x 2½ inch square tin, greased and lined with baking paper 

Ingredients:

• 175g (6oz) plain flour
• 200g (7oz) caster sugar (I reduced to 150g and it was still sweet)
• 125g (4½ oz) porridge oats (I used Quaker)
• 1½ teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 200ml (7fl oz) semi-skimmed milk
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 110g (4oz) butter
• 2 Tablespoons preserved stem ginger, chopped (optional) 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 2/300°F/150°C.
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl, then mix in the sugar, oats, ginger and bicarbonate of soda.
3. In a small pan, gently bring the milk, butter and golden syrup to a boil until the butter has melted.
4. Beat the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the stem ginger if using.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes.
6. Leave to cool, then cut into 16 squares.

Blueberry Crumble Cake

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

Sadly the blueberries used for this cake weren’t from our blueberry bush, which we’ve had for about 3 years and it’s never given us a single berry! I keep reading that we need at least 2 different plants so they can pollinate each other, so it looks like we’ll need to get a little friend for our sad little blueberry bush.

Anyway, I love cakes with a crunchy topping, so I used a basic cake recipe and then topped it with a nutty crumble topping – it went down a treat! It would be great served as a pudding with cream or custard too!
I used fresh blueberries but I’m sure you could use frozen ones, especially as they’re only £1 at Tesco’s at the moment!

• Makes: 16 squares
• You will need: an 8 or 9 inch square tin, lined with greaseproof paper
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C
• Cooking time: 40-50 minutes 

Ingredients:
FOR THE TOPPING

• 15g (2 Tablespoons) plain flour
• 35g (3 Tablespoons) soft brown sugar
• 50g (3 Tablespoons) butter/Stork
• 50g rolled porridge oats
• 40g mixed nuts, chopped

FOR THE CAKE

• 175g butter
• 150g light muscavado sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 175g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 200g (1 box) blueberries, washed and dried 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C.
2. First make the topping: by putting all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until you have a lumpy crumble. Set aside.
3. Then make the cake: by putting the butter and sugar into the food processor and whizzing until creamy and it is light in colour. Then add the eggs, flour and baking powder and whizz until well combined.
4. Spread the cake mixture into your tin, then scatter the blueberries on top. Top with the crumble then press down slightly.
5. Bake in the middle of the oven for 40-50 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
6. Cool in the tin and then cut into 16 squares.

Granola

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

The first time I made granola I used Alton Brown’s recipe, which worked very well, but it used up all of the maple syrup we had and it took 1 hour to cook.

So this time I replaced the maple syrup with golden syrup and I cooked it at a higher temperature for half the time. The result was even better as the mixture produced more yummy clusters.





So this is my recipe for granola:

• Makes: This amount will fill a 1.5 litre (6 cup) canister, but it’s difficult to say exactly how many servings it will provide as I mix this with Rice Krispies and sliced banana for breakfast. Plus there are so many other things you can add to it like dried fruit or pumpkin seeds. 

• You will need: a large bowl and a baking sheet
• Cooking time: 30 minutes
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C 

Ingredients:

• 45g (¼ cup) light muscavado sugar
• 90g (¼ cup) golden syrup
• 60g (¼ cup) vegetable oil
• 300g (3 cups) rolled porridge oats
• 75g (½ cup) mixed nuts, finely chopped (I used a food processor) 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C.
2. Mix the sugar and golden syrup in a large bowl and melt either in the microwave or over a saucepan of simmering water, then add the oil and mix well.
3. Add the oats and nuts and mix until well combined.
4. Spread the mixture onto a baking sheet and bake in the in the lower half of the oven for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure even browning and pressing the mixture down before you return the mixture to the oven.
5. Leave to cool, then store in an airtight container.