Fruit and nut flapjacks

Ah flapjacks, they start off so well don't they? You fill a bowl chock full of things that are good for you, oats, fruit, nuts etc. You then diligently turn and fill a pan with butter, syrup and sugar! However we must not lose sight of the fact that all the good stuff is still there!

Yes I am justifying to myself that these are an excellent energy boosting snack and perfect before dance rehearsals.

They are super quick and simple to mix up and a batch can be in the oven within 10 minutes.

These flapjacks are a bit of a hotch potch of things I had to use up in the cupboard, but I love love love the finished result. Peanuts will definitely be making a welcome reappearance in flapjacks again.

Fruit and nut flapjacks


makes 16


175g oats
35g chopped pecans
40g halved peanuts
70g dried cranberries
70g currants
140g butter
25g golden syrup
125g light brown sugar
teaspoon vanilla paste (optional)


Grease and line a suitable tin with baking parchment, I lined my brownie tin. Preheat the oven to 160C/FAN 140C.


Put the oats, nuts and fruit into a bowl. Gently heat the butter, sugar and golden syrup until melted. Mix into the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined. Tip the flapjack mixture into the prepared tin, level and lightly press down with the back of a spoon. 

Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until lightly golden.

Leave to cool in the pan, when cool remove and cut into squares. 

These flapjacks keep in an airtight tin very well, and are robust enough to transport to work for an afternoon snack.

The vanilla in this is completely optional but I like the subtle hint of it in my flapjack. The total weight of fruit and  nuts in this recipe is 215g, as long as you keep to roughly this weight you could ring the changes with as many fruit and nut combos as you can think of! 

Garibaldi biscuits

I was very very excited to get my newest baking book through the post, Biscuit, by Miranda Gore Browne, finalist from the Great British Bake Off.

There are so many delicious looking biscuits in there that it is going to take some restraint to not make them al at once.

Weirdly the first biscuits that I made were not planned, I had the sudden urge to make something, as all the tins in the house were empty. However it was raining outside and so ideally it had to be something I could make with my limited supplies.

Garibaldi biscuits were the winners, they used currants which were the only thing a had 1000s of. They also used icing sugar instead of caster sugar which was perfect as I had no caster sugar.

For such a simple little biscuit they taste amazing and disappeared remarkably fast out of my biscuit tin!

Garibaldi biscuits


makes 20 (well depends on how big you cut them I suppose!)


75g softened butter
75g icing sugar
1 egg separated
200g plain flour
100g currants
1 tbsp milk


Preheat the oven to 180C/160 FAN and line two baking sheets with non stick baking paper. 


Cream the butter and sugar together, add the egg white and flour and mix until a dough forms. Gently knead the dough into a ball and divide into two equal pieces.


Flour a work surface and roll out both pieces of dough to 5mm.  Put one piece on a sheet of greaseproof paper and cover with the fruit.

 Place the other piece of dough on the top and gently press down with your hands. Next gently use a rolling pin to roll the double layer as thin as possible. If the fruit starts peeping through, stop rolling and patch up with your fingers.


Trim the edges straight and cut into smallish squares. 

Beat the egg yolk with the milk and brush generously over the squares. Place on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 15-20mins until golden and shiny on top.

Leave to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.