I recently found an old box of books from my youth and childhood in the loft.  Amongst my old A-level text books was a vintage gem from my formative years – Katie Stewart’s “The Pooh Cook Book” – a treasure trove of A.A. Milne endorsed, evocative recipes which featured heavily during the wet and wintry weekends of my West Country childhood. Flapjacks I remember being a particular favourite, and the recipe still has my lovely mum’s annotations to scale the recipe for the roasting tin that fitted our late lamented Belling oven (1976-2000).

Thinking (or rather dreaming) of flapjacks led me back to my all-time favourite food columist Felicity Cloake’s definitive Flapjack article (from her most excellent “How to cook the perfect …” series)*.  Her advice regarding the mix of bog standard porridge oats and larger rolled jumbo oats guarantees no more batches of accidental flapjack-flavoured granola.  She also nails the crunchy vs chewy instructions.

Tinkering with perfection is a dangerous business, but, being a chewy flapjack fan whilst still loving crunch, I was rather tempted by Tom Norrington-Davies’s retro cornflake addition.  (My mother’s 1980s health-food obsession meant that the only packaged cereal we had at home was All-Bran which would have been revolting!).

Wanting something a bit more “grown-up” I came across these unadulterated puffed oats which do the trick perfectly.  I substitute 25g of these for 50g of the jumbo oats in Felicity’s recipe.  (They also add fantastic lightness and crunch to granola and museli and taste nutty and interesting too.)

My tuppence worth is to press the mixture down quite firmly before you bake.  An old fashioned masher would be perfect if you have one! Continue reading ““Best of Both Worlds” Flapjacks” →