Flapjack and a So-Called Fence

Thank you for the message of support on my last post. I'm sorry about the rant, it was a bad day yesterday and I just needed to let off a bit of steam. I spoke to some of my nice neighbours A & P this morning who told me that the fence is not a permanent one but something temporary until the rest of the work has been done. I do hope so because this was what greeted me yesterday, after the hordes of people had gone, and I went out to have a look at what they had put in place of the post and rail fence they ripped down.

Note the very attractive slope of the fence, the wonderful gap next to the wall and the extremely useful HUGE gap between the end of the fence and my gatepost! Such a professional job ..... NOT!!! I have no idea what their plans for this particular fence is are but I am sincerely hoping that A & P are right and that this is just a temporary measure.

So, today, after all the stress of yesterday, I was really craving something sweet. I'm on a very tight budget again this month, particularly as I have had to give up my market stall, so, I hunted through the cupboard to see what I had to make some cakes or cookies with. Lurking right at the back of the cupboard, there was a 1kg bag of porridge oats and a bag of very hard, lumpy, supposedly "soft" dark brown sugar. Who knows how long they've been in there but, never one to throw something away unless it's absolutely necessary, I immediately thought of flapjack. Deliciously sticky, oaty goodness to help relieve the stress of the weekend.

I have no idea where I originally got this recipe, it's been written in my note book for years so here is is, in case you have a craving for flapjack :-) I will post some pictures after they are cooked and chopped into slices if I remember. 

Flapjack

Ingredients

175 grams butter
175 grams soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
250 grams porridge oats

Method
Preheat oven to 150C. Lightly grease a 20cm baking tin.
In a large pan, melt together the butter, sugar & syrup, while stirring. When melted, remove from the heat and stir in the porridge oats.
Pour into tin and smooth the surface with a spoon. Bake for 35-40 mins or until the edges are brown and the surface has turned golden.
Place the tin on a wire rack. Cut into squares after 10 minutes, but leave to cool completely before removing from the tin.

Flapjack

I hardly ever cook sweet things, usually I prefer savoury dishes and snacks but at the moment, I'm on a bit of a baking mission and today I had the urge to make something sweet and sticky. It's been years since I baked flapjack and I found a lovely recipe today with a hint of ginger and lemon. I ran out of syrup so I used some of the fabulous maple syrup that my daughter brought back from her USA trek. The maple syrup went brilliantly with the ginger and they tasted absolutely gorgeous. 

Ingredients
175g/6oz butter
175g/6oz golden syrup
175g/6oz muscovado sugar

350g/12oz porridge oats
½ lemon, finely grated zest
pinch ground ginger

Method

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2 and line a 20cm/8in square baking tin with baking paper.

Melt the butter in a medium pan over a low heat. Dip a brush in the butter and brush the baking tin with a little bit of it. Add the golden syrup and sugar to the butter and heat gently. Once the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the porridge oats, lemon zest and ginger.

Pack the mixture into the baking tin and squash down. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

Once cooked, remove from the oven, leave to cool for 15 minutes, then turn out on to a chopping board and cut into squares.