Hi everyone! Hope you’ve had a great weekend and I hope that your Monday is going well. It’s Blue Monday and a Full Moon! I’ve definitely felt a little bit more crabby and irritable over the last day or so. Yesterday, I just wanted to hibernate, let alone go out and do anything. But I forced myself to do housework and I went out for a couple of hours for a walk with Mr S. Coming back to a warm house to bake was just what I needed.

As you’ll know from my most recent posts, I was given a #100bakes poster at Christmas by my friend and it has inspired me to get back into blogging on here. Although I make a few of the bakes on the challenge on a regular basis, there are a few things I haven’t even tried at all!

The poster can be found on: www.crumbsbycollette.com

Yesterday afternoon, after our walk I had a couple of hours before I was due to start on our Sunday roast. Although that was a disaster in itself, the chicken wasn’t cooked in time with all the rest of the meal and I had the mother of all meltdowns. My body chose to have the biggest hot flush ever (I’ve not had any for a while due to HRT) and I had to go upstairs to sit in the cold bedroom. I had to get Mr S to serve everything up as I was about to end up spilling gravy everywhere.

Baking, in comparison relaxes me for some reason. But it didn’t today. Why is it that when I bake something I get comments like “Don’t bake anything, I don’t want it in the house, I’m trying to lose weight,” etc. You know the sorts of comments. Then the moment I bake something and I say it’s for a customer or it’s going to work then I get, “Oh, you never bake anything for us! Can’t I have just one piece of flapjack?” It’s when you think, just give me a break!

I bake flapjack regularly and my go-to flapjack recipe always comes out chewy and making people want more. My tip is to bake low and slow and I always leave the mixture to stand in the tin for 15 minutes before baking. I also cut it when it is still warm but left in the tin.

My Caramel Flapjacks are a twist on the regular flapjacks I bake:

For the Caramel ones, I use maple syrup in place of golden syrup and I also added in some Callebaut Caramel Chips. I buy a 2.5kg bag of these from Amazon and have used them in cookies most of the time. As they are a beige colour, their colour did tend to blend in with the colour of the porridge oats! Thankfully, the flavour did not disappear in the baking.

CARAMEL FLAPJACKS

Makes 12 pieces

Ingredients:

• 175g unsalted butter, softened
• 175g soft, light brown sugar
• 1 generous tablespoonful of maple syrup
• 350g porridge oats
• 175g Callebaut Caramel Chips

You will need a 23cm (9″) square tin greased and lined with baking parchment.

• Pre-heat the oven to 150oC (I have a fan oven) but alternatively use: 170oc/ 325oF or Gas Mark 3.
• Weigh out all your ingredients and place the butter, sugar and maple syrup into a saucepan. Heat until melted on a medium heat.
• Pour into a mixing bowl and add the porridge oats.
• Fold in the porridge oats until well coated and then finally add in the Caramel Chips until incorporated into the mixture.
• Spoon the flapjack mixture into the prepared tin and then level out with the back of a spoon.
• Leave to stand for 15 minutes before baking. I bake my flapjack for about 30-35 minutes until it is still “wobbly” in the middle.
• Take out of the oven and put on a wire rack to cool (still in the tin!) Leave for about 10 minutes or so. Cut the flapjack into pieces. I’ve done mine into 12 but you don’t have to do this!
• Remove from the tin when cool and leave on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days (they don’t last that long in our house!)

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx