EASY CHOCOLATE FLAPJACKS

Delicious chocolate flapjacks

I was chatting with my friend and author Linda Chapman, writer of children’s and young teenage fiction, about the joy of finding reasonably healthy snacks for the young and not so young, after a busy day.

For those of you who don’t know Linda she is the author of numerous series of fantastic books including from My Secret Unicorn, Super Powers, The Skating Stories and many more, see the link below for her website.

http://www.lindachapmanauthor.co.uk/

The children in Linda’s books have busy outdoor lives, sounds not too dissimilar to us here at NOT JUST FOR RABBITS, although sport keeps Teen 2 outdoors, not horses.

Consequently I am always in search of healthy snacks for hungry people. Something that appeals to the chocoholics in the family, but aren’t just full of sugar.

A recipe that has become a firm favourite here is chocolate flapjacks. My other friend Linda introduced me to the wonderful Green and Blacks recipe that we now use and adapt with nuts, coconut, raisins or whatever takes our fancy.  

It is a great recipe as it’s packed with oats, so after a healthy walk, like we had last weekend in the weak winter sunshine, or a busy day at school or work it is just delicious.

Winter walks in Hampshire, England.

Snowdrops

CHOCOLATE FLAPJACKS

Preparation time 10 minutes

Baking time 20-25 minutes

Makes about 20 pieces

INGREDIENTS:

350g (12oz) unsalted butter

3tbsp golden syrup

175g (6oz) soft brown sugar

175g (6oz) muscovado sugar

450g (12oz) porridge oats

6 tbsp cocoa powder

A handful of desiccated coconut, raisins or mixed nuts works really well, depending on what you fancy.

WHAT TO DO:

1.     Pre heat the oven to 150 degrees c

2.     In a saucepan melt the butter, syrup and both the sugars. Then mix in the cocoa and then the oats. Then add your extra nuts or coconut and stir again.

3.     Press the mixture into a lined baking tin, I use a 20 by 30cm tin. Then cook for about 20 minutes, until the flapjacks are cooked in the centre.

4.     Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes.

Winter walks

Snowdrops in Hampshire

As you can see it is a very simple one pan recipe. The joy of it is that they taste so chocolaty but you don’t actually have to use any chocolate.

Awesome chocolate flapjacks