Basic, old school flapjack

I wish I were one of those women who stopped eating when under stress. You know the type – those who eat like a bird, pick at a few carrots. They have snake hips and a slightly worried expression all the time. They talk about their ‘nerves’ a lot.

I am not that woman. Me? I like to eat my way through it. Can you lend me an ear? Can I tell you why I’m eating so much?

We’re moving house. This Friday no less. Yes! We are surrounded by boxes of all our paraphernalia. I have come to hate boxes. In fact I hate stuff. I lay in bed (surrounded by boxes) and wonder if we should just ask the removal guys to sail off into the sunset with it all and start again. All the dusty keepsakes, books already read, photos of holidays past. We’re not a sum of our stuff – are we?

This evening I probably gave my most creative parenting performance to date. I made up a bedtime story about 3 little boys who burrow under a tree in search of fairies. The utter joy in their eyes at this tale of Charlie, Max and Lawrence and their big adventure (complete with Enid Blyton style packed lunches) was perhaps naively surprising to me. They were on the edge of their seats. It was back to basics parenting and they loved it.

In continuation of the basic theme, here are some very basic flapjacks. (And I mean basic in a good way, not in a Kate Moss way).

Lots of great recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, The Works, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.

This time last year: Cherry & banana no churn ice-cream, Orange meringue pie and Roasted cauliflower, cumin and bulgar wheat salad.

Two years ago: Beery walnut bread, Gluten-free oat-topped chorizo, sweetcorn and tomato muffins and Orange butter biscuits.

Three years ago: Chocolate, hazelnut and orange wrinkly biscuits, Sticky Bounty rolls and Lemon & almond breakfast rolls,

Four years ago: Father’s Day man cake and Bakewell tart with a vanilla crust.

Flapjack

Makes 12

Ingredients:

250g salted butter, plus extra for greasing
225g dark soft brown sugar
150g golden syrup
500g rolled oats
100g sultanas

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and grease and line a 25cm x 20cm tin. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a large saucepan over a medium heat. The aim is to dissolve all the ingredients so that they are smooth, but to not lose any volume through boiling so be careful not to overheat. Add the oats and sultanas, then stir well until evenly coated.

Tip into the prepared tin and use a piece of greaseproof paper to flatten the top and make sure the flapjack is evenly distributed in the tin. Bake for 40 minutes until the edges start to brown. Whilst still warm in the tin, score into 12 squares. Allow to cool completely before cutting along the scores.

You could also make the flapjack in these silicone tea cup moulds from Iced Jems. (Thanks Iced Jems for sending these to me – my 1 year old is obsessed with them!) I used half the flapjack mixture from this recipe to fill 4 cups and used the rest of the flapjack to fill a smaller tin. The great thing about silicone is of course that you don’t need to grease or line it. With these tea cup moulds you also get a large amount of flapjack with crunchy bits all the way around the outside and a really soft centre. Flapjack heaven.