Fruit & Seed Flapjacks

Fruit & Seed Flapjacks fit the bill whether you’re looking for a healthier sweet treat or an energising snack.

The slow-release energy of oats is combined with apple and bananas, your choice of dried fruit and seeds, plus tahini or nut butter.

Many flapjacks have loads of added sugar. By my easy Fruit & Seed Flapjacks have only a modest amount of liquid sweetener such as honey.

Perfect for snacking, on-the-go breakfasts, in lunch boxes, out hiking or biking, these tasty, goodness-packed squares are a winner.

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I absolutely love oats. As well as being good for you, they’re economical, and so versatile. Even so, I was quite surprised at just how many oat recipes I’ve already posted!

There’s Porridge, of course. But also different versions of Savoury Flapjacks, various flavours of Scottish Oatcakes,  Overnight Oats, a thrifty Mushroom, Cheese & Bacon Oat Bake, as well as Oatmeal Bread and Beer & Cheese Bread with Oats.

However, I make no apologies for adding yet another. Because Fruit & Seed Flapjacks are a great addition to anyone’s repertoire of oaty delights.

FLAPJACKS

First off, what exactly is a flapjack? If you’re in the US, then ‘flapjack’ usually refers to a type of pancake.

I first learned this from one of my favourite Ernest Hemingway stories: Big Two-Hearted River. Over his campfire, Nick Adams makes a batter of buckwheat flour and water, then: “On the smoking skillet he poured smoothly the buckwheat batter. It spread like lava, the grease spitting sharply. Around the edges the buckwheat cake began to firm, then brown, then crisp.”

Lovely stuff, but definitely not a modern British flapjack.

I say ‘modern’ because it seems that up until around the 1930s, the British flapjack was a type of pancake.

However, these days, everyone in Britain considers a flapjack to be a thick, square or rectangle of baked rolled oats, fat such as butter, plus a runny sweetener like golden syrup and sometimes sugar too.

From that base all sorts of things can be added such as dried fruit, nuts, seeds, chocolate etc.

Great as a treat or snack, the portable flapjack is also ideal for lunchboxes, picnics or whenever you’re on the go.

FRUIT & SEED FLAPJACKS

My Fruit & Seed Flapjacks are full of wholesome, good things. For the dried fruit I’ve chosen chopped figs, raisins and sultanas. But you can use apricots, cherries, dates or whichever you fancy. Just remember to chop up the bigger ones.

The seeds I’ve used here are pumpkin and sunflower, plus black and white sesame. Other good ones are chia and hemp hearts. Or you could swap in chopped nuts such as walnuts or hazelnuts.

To up the fruit content even more, these flapjacks also have fresh fruit: mashed banana and grated apple.

As well as providing a hint of banana flavour, ripe bananas also add sweetness.

This means there’s less need to add the heaps of refined sugar found in many flapjacks.

EASY FLAPJACKS

One of the great things about flapjacks is that they’re so quick to bring together.

Start by putting the rolled oats, seeds, fresh and dried fruit into a big bowl.

To moisten and bind everything together, as well as adding more lovely flavour, we then add a liquid mix.

For a little additional sweetness, I add three tablespoons of local honey. But any other liquid sweetener such as maple, agave or coconut blossom is fine. If you have a batch of my homemade Dandelion Syrup that would be perfect (and very economical too!).

Bringing an earthiness as well as flavour and protein, I add a couple of tablespoons of tahini. You can replace this with any nut or seed butter if you prefer.

We’re also going to need some fat for binding and flavour. I love butter, but if you want to make completely plant-based Fruit & Seed Flapjacks, then coconut oil should be a good substitute.

So that the honey, tahini and butter (or your substitutes) can be combined with the dry ingredients, put them in a saucepan to gently melt.

Oats soak up a lot of liquid, so some boiling water from a kettle is included too.

Pour the contents of the saucepan into the oats, fruit and seeds and give everything a really good stir. You’ll want to make sure all the ingredients are nicely moist.

At the beginning, I use some of the melted butter (or coconut oil) to grease a paper-lined baking tin. My tin is 20 cm square which gives me the thick flapjacks I like. A slightly larger tin is fine, but I wouldn’t go bigger than 22 cm. We want thick, soft and chewy. Not thin and crispy.

All that’s left to do then is transfer the mix to the tin. Press down well with the back of a spoon (not forgetting to get right into those corners) and smooth the top.

Then it’s into a preheated oven for around an hour.

BAKING, COOLING & CUTTING

Ovens do vary, and in my fan oven the flapjacks take 55-60 minutes to get golden and firm. If yours brown too fast before it’s set, turn down the temperature a smidgen.

When it’s ready, put the tin on a wire rack until completely cold. Resist the urge to divide up before then or you could end up with a crumbly disaster!

Because my Fruit & Seed Flapjacks are high energy, I prefer to cut into sixteen smallish squares rather than the traditional big rectangles.

Packed full of flavour and wholesome ingredients, I think you’ll find these flapjacks a real winner.

SERVING & STORING

I love them alongside a cuppa instead of a sugary biscuit. But, like my semi-sweet Homemade Digestive Biscuits, I like them with cheese too.

Of course, dried fruits, bananas and apple do contain sugar. But, unlike refined sugars, they also contain useful stuff like fibre.

High energy, these flapjacks are ideal for sustenance when taking part in physically strenuous activities as well as a not-s0-naughty lunchbox treat.

Pop a couple in your hiking backpack or gym bag, or eat when out cycling, and the slow-release energy of oats combined with the quicker-release natural sugars in fruit, will keep you going.

Infinitely adaptable with your favourite dried fruits, seeds or nuts, try adding flavourings such as cinnamon, ginger, vanilla extract or orange zest.

Cheaper than shop bought cereal or energy bars, Fruit & Seed Flapjacks will keep for at least five days in an airtight container.

HAVE YOU MADE FRUIT & SEED FLAPJACKS?

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4.75 from 4 votes

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Fruit & Seed Flapjacks

The slow-release energy of oats is combined with apple and bananas, your choice of dried fruit and seeds, plus tahini or nut butter. Perfect as a healthier sweet treat or energising snack.

Course Breakfast, Snack, Cake

Cuisine Vegetarian, Vegan, plant-based, World

Keyword oats, energy bar, oat bar

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 16 squares

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 60 g butter or coconut oil: see Recipe Note #1
• 250 g rolled oats
• 180 g dried fruit e.g. raisins, sultanas, figs, dates, apricots roughly chop larger dried fruit such as figs
• 100 g mixed seeds e.g. sunflower, pumpkin, sesame
• 2 small ripe bananas
• 1 apple
• 3 tbsp honey or other liquid sweetener see Recipe Note #2
• 2 tbsp tahini or nut butter
• 100 ml boiling water from a kettle

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 160 C / 140 Fan / Gas 3 and position a shelf in the middle.

2. Line a 20 cm square cake tin with baking paper.

   Melt the butter or coconut oil in a medium sized saucepan and brush some of it over the paper to grease it.

   Set aside the saucepan until step 4.

3. Put the oats, dried fruit and seeds in a large bowl.

   Cut the apple into quarters, cut out the core and discard. Grate the apple into the bowl.

   Mash the peeled bananas then add those to the bowl too.

4. To the melted butter or coconut oil remaining in the saucepan, add the honey or other sweetener, plus the tahini or nut butter,

   Add the boiling water to the saucepan and stir to combine.

5. Pour the liquid from the saucepan into the bowl of oats, fruit and seeds and stir everything together well.

6. Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin, pressing down to firm it, then smooth the top.

   Put in the oven and bake for 55-60 minutes until golden and firm: turn the oven down a little if the top is browning too quickly.

7. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin until completely cold.

   Transfer to a board and cut into square flapjacks.

   Stored in an airtight container they should keep for at least 5 days.

Recipe Notes

Note #1 Replacing the butter with coconut oil would make these flapjacks entirely plant-based and I see no reason why it wouldn't work. But please note this recipe has not been tested with coconut oil.

Note #2 Alternative liquid sweeteners include maple, agave or coconut blossom syrups or my economical homemade Dandelion Syrup.

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