Salted Caramel Flapjacks

This weekend was all about a quick bake that would be easy to transport, as the result is going overseas this week as a gift for my German family. 

If I bake for this side of my family, I always want to make something that is not found in German baking, and is therefore unusual to their tastes. What is familiar for us in the UK then becomes something special for them.

I decided upon flapjacks because I've not made them for a while, and they would fulfil my brief. This is not my usual recipe, but one I rediscovered while spending a happy hour recently leafing through my huge file of recipes torn out of magazines over the years. This particular one is from a Sunday magazine from 3 years ago.

I was drawn to this recipe really by the presence of two words: salt, and caramel. I don't know anyone who can resist this combination of flavours. I know I can't. They would be more special than the usual plain variant, and therefore, a bit of a treat.

I cut these flapjacks smaller than I would usually because they are very rich, quite sweet (though not too salty, despite the name) and a little sticky. Cut them larger and you might find that there can be too much of a good thing!

Give these a try, and let me know what you think.

240g salted butter, diced
180g light muscovado sugar

225g tinned caramel, or dulce de leche

Small pinch of salt

350g rolled oats

50g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

You will also need a 23 cm square tin, greased and base lined with baking paper

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.

2. Put the butter, sugar, caramel and the pinch of salt in a saucepan over a low heat and stir occasionally until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved.

3. Take the pan off the heat, add the oats and mix together.

4. Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface using the back of a metal spoon.

5. Bake for 20 minutes until lightly browned, take out of the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Loosen the sides of the flapjack with a palette knife (or an ordinary knife if you don't have one) while it is still warm so that it doesn't stick to the sides when you turn it out.

6. When it is cold and firm, remove from the tin.

7. To decorate, melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan with a little simmering water.

8. Drizzle over the top of the flapjack with a teaspoon in a random fashion, or, (for aesthetic
purposes), pipe diagonal lines in a criss-cross pattern, as I did.

9. Leave the chocolate to set for a few hours before cutting into approximately 25 squares.

Breakfast Bites

Cleaning out my kitchen cupboards this weekend I came across leftover ingredients from my marathon Christmas baking sessions. There were a few grams of this (nuts), and a few grams of that (dried fruit), as well as a myriad of other goodies.

Not being one for waste, I had a think about what I could bake to use them up without having to buy too many more ingredients with which to do so. I remembered a recipe that I have not made for a while which would be perfect - Nigella Lawson's Breakfast Bars. These are just like the cereal bars that you can buy, but so much more tasty and filling since they are packed full of oats, seeds, nuts and fruit. 

They are bound together with condensed milk, which negates some of their healthiness, I suppose, but, you could use the light version as I have done in the past. It tastes the same but has less fat.

These little bars are perfect for breakfast with a cup of tea, or as a mid-morning snack, or if you are in a hurry, a bowl of cereal and milk in a portable form.

What I like about this recipe is that it is so adaptable. The bars are delicious if you follow the recipe as given, but you can add whatever you like, or what you have to hand, keeping the condensed milk and oats quantities the same. 

Breakfast Bars

(from Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson)

1 x 397g can condensed milk

250g rolled oats (not instant)

75g shredded coconut

100g dried cranberries

125g mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame)

125g unsalted peanuts

1. Preheat the oven to 130 degrees C / gas mark 1/2, and grease and line a 23 x 33 x 4 cm baking tin.

2. Warm the condensed milk in a pan in order to loosen it slightly. This makes it easier to combine with the other ingredients.

3. Mix the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and add the warmed condensed milk. Mix together  thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

4. Spread the mixture into the tin and press down to even the surface with a metal spoon.

5. Bake for 1 hour and remove from the oven. After about 15 minutes cut into four across and four down, while still in the tin, to make 16 bars. 

6. Remove from the tin and allow to cool completely.

 

NB. I replaced the coconut and peanuts with leftover chopped nuts and pecans, and added some dried cherries to the cranberries which not only added to the colour, but also a welcome sweet and sour note.