HOLY FLAPS!

It was a wet Sunday and therefore a day for doing some baking. However I’d already enjoyed an action-packed weekend with an evening of whisky on the Friday Night, followed by a sly game of Darts in the Amber Valley and a catch up over a cup of the not so hard stuff in the industrial suburb of the town I reside in.

The record on the Player was Seal’s excellent sophomore effort “Seal II” . There’s something extremely uplifting about listening to this album on a wet Sunday Morning. The captivating voice and powerful arrangements, which somehow combine mild rave, trance and easy listening, are more than enough to motivate. The pick of the tracks are the storming opener “Bring it On” and the ubiquitous love song “Kiss From a Rose” . I say ubiquitous, it certainly was in the summer of 1995 when it was constantly on the radio during a holiday I took to Canada that summer. For me the record also brings back memories of long-gone, wet Sunday mornings lying half conscious on a sofa in a flat in Huddersfield while staring out of the window at the distant, dark hills of the Northern Peak District. It was during this experimental period in my life that I first picked up my copy of this wonderful album.

The ingredients of this recipe were as follows:

195grams of  Unsalted Butter.
195 grams of Caster Sugar.
195 grams of Porridge Oats
50 grams of Sultanas and Mixed Peel.
2 tablepoons of Honey.
1 teaspoon of Nutmeg.
1 teaspoon of Almond Essence.

The method to make this recipe is as follows

1. Mix together the Butter and Sugar until it is fluffy.
2. Add in Porridge Oats, Honey, Nutmeg and Almond Essence.
3. Stir together until there is a thick paste.
4. Pour into a high-sided, thoroughly greased baking tray and cook in the oven on Gas Mark 4 for 45 minutes.
5. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool down for 5 minutes.
6. Put in the refrigerator for 5 hours.
7. Remove from the fridge and cut the mixture into bite size squares to serve.

Initially I thought I’d blown it in making this recipe as when I took it out of the oven it was too runny. However by putting it in the refrigerator for a time I was able to make the ingredients solid again. The Honey and Almond Essence gave the flapjacks a genuine sweetness while the use of the Oats made the flapjacks high in fibre to create a sweet but healthy treat.

Crunch time- the flapjacks are neatly arranged on a plate for serving