Champagne and flapjacks at 2000ft

February...Valentines, pancakes, snow and my wedding anniversary.

5 years ago on a beautiful, cold and frosty, but sunny, February day G and I exchanged our vows in front of family and friends. It was a magical day, followed by a magical honeymoon in Thailand. A bit of winter sun and warmth  is just what's needed when it's cold and frosty at home.

So when G said this year he was planning on taking me away for our anniversary I was dreaming of sunshine,warm temperatures and white sandy beaches. What I got instead was sunshine, freezing temperatures and white, snowy mountain tops. And although a few days in the Lake District wasn't quite what I had in mind we had a wonderful time away. By day we climbed up a mountain or 2 and by night we stayed in a lovely pub, with a roaring fire and good grub.

To help us on our way I had baked some flapjacks...and had hidden away in the bottom of my rucksack a little treat for us to enjoy once we had made it to the top of the mountain on our first day.

Champagne and flapjacks at 2000ft

Happy 5th Anniversary!

Next year maybe we'll make it somewhere a little warmer, but in the meantime here's the recipe for my scrummy banana and chocolate flapjacks.

Banana and chocolate flapjacks

Ingredients

140g/5oz butter

100g/4oz soft light brown sugar

2 heaped tbsp honey

350g/12oz porridge oats

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 medium, ripe bananas

100g/4oz dark chocolate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 23cm x 33cm swiss roll/brownie tin

2. Melt together butter, sugar and honey in a large saucepan over a low heat. Once melted stir in the oats, cinnamon and baking powder until well combined.

3. Mash the bananas and then stir into the oat mixture.

4. Tip into the prepared tin and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon or spatula.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are just starting to brown.

6. Mark out the bars on the top of the flapjack whilst it is still warm and in the tin. Leave to cool completely before turning out and finish cutting it into pieces.

7. Break up the chocolate into small pieces and place in bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir occasionally until completely melted.

8. Coat half of each flapjack with the chocolate and leave to harden.

These are best enjoyed with a glass of champagne, on top of a snowy mountain in the freezing cold Lake District.

Alternatively, just enjoy with a cup of tea for an afternoon snack :-) 

Love food, hate waste

Weekends are great, especially lazy ones.Weekends are for lie-ins, breakfast in bed,  trips to the cinema (we went to see Sherlock Holmes...ace) and afternoons in the pub. But the one thing I don't like about weekends is housework. Like a lot of people I work Monday to Friday, 8am (or 9am) - 5pm (or 4pm). I train at Kung Fu Monday nights 7-9pm, and I try and go to the gym, for a swim or to a Pilates class on 3 other evenings during the week . I'm lucky if I'm home before 7.30pm most days. So after dinner has been cooked and eaten there's not much of the evenings left to do anything productive, even if I had the energy to do something, which I usually don't. Therefore housework tends to be a weekend job.

As I was cleaning and tidying the kitchen I noticed there were a few wrinkly and squashed apples in the bottom of the fruit bowl, forgotten about over Christmas when cake, chocolate and mince pies were more appealing. They were too wrinkly and soft to eat, but as I don't like wasting food I didn't want to just throw them out. so the only logical thing to do was to cook with them.

There weren't enough apples for a cake or a pie so I decided to make some cookies. I perused my vast collection of cookbooks but couldn't find a recipe for apple cookies. Cakes, scones, pies, crumbles and tarts...yes. Cookies...no. I did, however, come across a recipe for raisin, oat and cinnamon cookies. Aha, thought I. I'll just substitute the raisins for apples and all will be fine...but no, I didn't have enough butter for said recipe and halving it would have still left me with a wrinkly apple or two. So I decided to experiment a little. With a mixture of bits from this recipe and bits from an 'old faithful' cookie recipe I cooked up my own oaty, apple and cinnamon cookies. Which, I have to say, have turned out very nice indeed. Maybe a little soft in the middle, I put that down to the moisture in the apples, but they taste great. And they'll definitely be eaten long before they're past their best, so no waste here!


Oaty Apple and Cinnamon Cookies


Ingredients (makes approx. 16 cookies)
150g/6oz butter, softened
100g/4oz light muscovado sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
150g/6oz self raising flour
150g/6oz porridge oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
150g/6oz - 200g/8oz apple, peeled, cored and diced (not too small, not too big)

Method
1.Preheat oven to 160C. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment/greaseproof paper.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Then beat in the syrup. (I find my stand mixer or an electric hand held mixer best for this job.)
3. Mix in the flour and half of the oats, adding it in a few stages, until combined. Then mix in the chopped apple and the last of the oats. At this stage you may need to get your hands in to bring it all together.
4. Divide the mixture into 16 balls. Place them on the baking sheets, not too close together as they will spread when cooking, and press down lightly on each to flatten a little.
5. Bake for 15 minutes until golden. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes or so before transferring to a wire rack to finish off.

Whilst they are cooling, stick the kettle on and make yourself a cuppa. And enjoy with a freshly baked cookie.

The rest of the housework can wait :-)