ENGLISH MUM: never knowingly undercatered

You know how you get little bits of leftover cereal that nobody seems to want to finish?  Well, for some reason these really annoy the pants off me.  Half the time I go to finish them off (even though I hate them - thrifty, moi) only to find they’re all cardboardy and chewy.  This, then, is usually the time I make flapjacks.  I have a sort of dustbin approach to flapjack making - anything remotely edible that can possibly be thrown into a flapjack recipe gets hurled into the mix in a kind of Swedish Chef approach to cookery.  Works for me.

Fruit and Nut Flapjacks:

6 oz butter

4 oz brown sugar

4 tablespoons golden syrup

8 oz rolled oats

4 oz random leftover cereal

Handful of sultanas or chopped dates (dried cranberries are lovely too)

Handful of almonds/brazil nuts/hazelnuts/whatever, roughly chopped (I like big pieces in mine)

Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan.  If you used quite granulated sugar you’ll need to stir well and melt it into the mix. 

Mix all the other ingredients in a large bowl, then just pour over the butter mixture and stir well.  Don’t do it the other way round, there’s not enough room in the saucepan.  Press it into a buttered cake tin (worth putting some greaseproof paper in the bottom that overhangs - makes it easier to get out) and bake at 180 degrees, whatever gas mark (you know the drill) for about 15 - 20 mins.  I did mine in an oblong cake tin and it was slightly too overdone at the edges after 20 mins so check after 15.

Cool completely before removing from the tin and slicing, otherwise you’ll end up with granola.  Enjoy with a cup of tea and ignore complaints of child who doesn’t like sultanas.  Heh.