Oat Flap Jacks

The plan was to make Chocolaty Oat Flap Jacks, but the girls voted to eat the chocolate bars first, and suggested adding cherries and raisins to the oat mixture in place of the chocolate. As I have difficulties resisting a bar of chocolate myself, I didn't. The flap jacks turned out very nicely without it (and it meant that Jacob - 10 1/2 months, and Aleksander - almost 2 - could have a piece or three, too!).

Oat Flap Jacks with Raisins and Glacé Cherries

5 oz (125 g) margarine (this can be dairy free)
4 oz (100g) Demerara sugar or other brown sugar
3-4 tbsp golden syrup
10 oz (250g) rolled oats
(Basic recipe)

A small handful of raisins (or three of the children’s snack boxes!)
About 6 glacé cherries, chopped.

(To make the chocolate ones, melt two bars of milk chocolate and spread over the top of the Flap Jacks while still warm.)

Combine margarine, sugar and syrup in a saucepan and melt over a low heat, until sugar has dissolved, then add raisins and cherries, before mixing in all the oats. Pour into greased pan, 8” (20 cm) square, pressing the mixture down a little.
Bake in oven preheated to 180C, for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool a little, cut into squares, then cool completely before removing from tin.
Tip: Line the bottom of the baking tin with baking paper or grease proof paper to help remove cooled flap jacks from the tin (I will next time).
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Oats are rich in protein (13%), as well as containing 8.7 per cent fat. These fats are made up of the three main types, saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. It contains only a small amount of saturated fat, which is good news, but provides good quantities of essential fatty acids.
As oats only contain negligible amounts of gluten, compared to say, wheat, many coeliac patients can tolerate oats in their diet, but there are also many who can’t. If you have gluten intolerance, or if you are suffering from coeliac disease, you ought to ask for tests to determine whether oats can, or should, be included in your diet.
It would be a pity to avoid eating oats if you don’t have to, as it has a wide range of health benefits - from lowering cholesterol to preventing heart disease. It contain a wide range of vitamins and minerals, dietary fibre, and starchy carbohydrate and is beneficial to people with diabetes (not this recipe, though!), because of its effects on blood glucose and subsequent insulin response.

Did you know… that filling a sock with oats – and tying the top – then placing it in the bath water while you take a bath, can help problem skin? Or that beta-glucan, a soluble fibre found in the cell walls of the kernels is used to make an anti-wrinkle therapy? Better than Botox any day, as no injections are required (although I’ll settle for my wrinkles. I’ve earned them)!