A secret I shall never unlock

I was with friends today in a new café in town and as well as a coffee I had a slice of flapjack. Now flapjack is something I really like, but somehow making it successfully eludes me. The one I had this afternoon held together but wasn’t so hard it was unbite-able, in fact it was very biteable. It was soft but not squidgy, chewy and with nuts and seeds for texture. It had a lovely rounded taste, and in fact I could have had another but I resisted the temptation as once again I am trying to lose weight.

The very lovely café guards its cookery secrets, and I can’t blame them but I might have to try again to make flapjacks and then try harder not to eat them all within a few hours. I have to hand the little recipe and home hints book by dear Ruth Drew, ‘The Happy Housewife’ and she has a recipe for them but i am pretty sure hers won’t be like the café’s. The traditional recipe is fairly simple, oats, sugar, golden syrup, margarine/butter, whereas the one I had this afternoon, although sweet didn’t seem to be sugar/syrup sweet and there was no honey flavour, so maybe it was fruit purée or maybe it was coconut sugar (which I’m disappointed to learn is no healthier than ordinary cane sugar). I’m pretty sure this afternoon’s treat wasn’t made with the traditional  butter/marge  – it’s not that you can taste it, but it’s a texture thing. Also a big clue was that the café’s menu was vegetarian/vegan!

Anyway, it’s a secret I shall never unlock, so here is Ruth Drew’s

Flapjacks (rich recipe)

• 2 oz sugar, preferably brown
• 2 – 2½ oz margarine
• 2 level tbsp golden syrup
• 4 oz rolled oats or coarse oatmeal
• optional almond essence or lemon rind

1. melt the margarine, stir in the sugar and golden syrup and heat gently (you can reduce the amount of sugar and margarine slightly)
2. add the oats away from the heat
3. include a few drops of almond essence or lemon rind if wished
4. grease and flour a sandwich tin and press teh mixture into this with damp fingers
5. bake for ½ hour in centre of a very moderate oven – gas mark 3, 350ºF 140ºC
6. mark into sections while hot and remove from the tin when half cold

Here’s a link to Sanctuary Café in Weston where you can find the amazing flapjacks, other amazing food and a whole library of board games! https://www.facebook.com/SanctuaryCafeWSM