caster sugar

I love flapjack; it’s tasty, oats are good for you, and as this recipe proves, you can add almost anything (within reason). I had quite a few “last bits” left of a few ingredients, so decided to whack them all together in a flapjack. Apologies for the lack of precision with this recipe, I measured things in handfuls, but you really can make it up as you go along, adding a bit more of something if necessary.

Ingredients

A couple of big handfuls of oats
A big scoop of butter
A glug of golden syrup
A slight sprinkle of caster sugar

“Odds and Ends Ingredients” (this is just what I had left in the cupboard)

A handful of raisins
A handful of leftover muesli
A handful of leftover strawberry crunch cereal
A few pieces of honeycomb
A handful of cashew nuts

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, adding a little more of anything that looks too less. It’s a good idea to have more oats than anything else as the flapjack will bind better this way.
Next, in a saucepan, melt the butter and golden syrup over a very gentle heat.
When the butter has just melted, carefully pour the syrup mixture over the oats and stir until fully combined.
Ensure all the dry ingredients are covered with the syrup mixture, if not, melt a little more butter and syrup and add until it is. I had to add a little more butter, as otherwise the flapjack would have been very crumbly.
Transfer into a lined baking tin and gently press the flapjack down.
Bake in the centre of the oven for about 20-25 mins or until golden brown.
Carefully take the flapjack out of the oven and with a knife, score down the flapjack where you want to divide it into pieces, then leave it to cool in the tin. This just makes it easier to cut properly once it’s fully cooled.
Leave to cool then enjoy!

Meringues are something I’ve been wanting to make for a while, but have been putting off as I don’t own an electric mixer! However, whisking them by hand didn’t take as long as I expected so don’t let that put you off. They take a while in the oven but the result is crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside loveliness. This recipe makes about 12 meringues.

Ingredients

3 egg whites

200g caster sugar

A few drops of vanilla extract

Lemon curd

Chocolate of your choice

Method

Preheat the oven to about 110˚C
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then add the vanilla essence.
Continue whisking until the mixture becomes a bit thicker and glossy.
Add the sugar a little bit at a time, whisking in between, until the mixture becomes thick.
At this point, you should be able to hold the bowl upside down and the mixture won’t move – I tested this over Ruby’s head, it was tense, I wouldn’t recommend doing this!
Once the mixture is thick and glossy, drop blobs onto a lined baking tray. I found it a bit hit and miss as to whether they looked good or not, but making small spiral movements with the spoon helped the mixture to fall off onto the tray more neatly.
Bake in the oven for about an hour. They may take a little longer depending on their size.
For the topping, I gently heated a couple of tablespoons of lemon curd in a saucepan until it was runny, and drizzled over the top of the meringues once they’d cooled. It helped to gently break the top of the meringue first, as this way the lemon curd falls inside the meringue too.
After leaving the lemon curd to set slightly, carefully melt the chocolate and using a spoon drizzle over the meringues.
Leave to set and enjoy!