Flapjack

          It’s summer, and summer is picnic season! It’s easy to just buy some chocolate bars and crisps to fill the picnic basket, but why not be a bit healthier and bake some flapjack instead? Fill it with dried fruit and seeds, and it’ll not just fill you up, but give you healthy omega 3 fats, which is good for your brain and heart.

Ingredients

80g butter
80g brown sugar
60g (2 tbsp) golden syrup
A good pinch of salt
130g porridge oats
70g chopped dried fruit (apricots, figs, apple etc)
25g dried cranberries or raisins
25g pumpkin seeds
25g sunflower seeds

You’ll also need:

A 20cm square baking tin lined with baking paper.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas Mark 4.

2. Put the butter, brown sugar, golden syrup and salt together in a saucepan, and heat gently until it melts together. Keep the heat low or the mixture will burn.

3. While the saucepan is heating, mix all the rest of the ingredients in a bowl together. Pour the liquid ingredients over the top and stir it together with a wooden spoon until all the dry ingredients are coated.

4. Spoon the mixture into the baking tin, press it down firmly with the back of the wooden spoon and bake in the oven for 15 to 18 minutes.

5. Allow to cool in the tin, then remove from the paper and cut into squares.

 Kaarina Leong-Smith.