I love flapjacks. They’re healthy, easy to make and delicious and this week I have had a kind of flapjack epiphany. I made the River Cottage no-bake fridge flapjacks which are gluten, dairy, nut and soya free. Yes you heard me, I didn’t cook them. No oven used at all. Just the fridge.
This could change my flapjack making habits for ever. My flapjacks never seem to turn out quite the same, no matter how careful I am with measuring and cooking times; sometimes burnt, so hard you can hardly bite into them or crumbly and disappointing.
These new paleo flapjacks were something of a revelation. They taste amazing.
You make them in ecactly the same way as normal flapjacks until that final moment. There I was standing in front of the fridge, eyeing the oven, thinking this can’t be right. Surely I need to cook them… But then I make my own muesli and I don’t cook that so maybe… It felt all wrong but I managed to squeeze them into the fridge and then the wait… they take about 2-3 hours to set in the fridge but it’s worth it.
Fancy making paleo not-baked flapjacks in your fridge?
They are gluten, wheat, dairy, nut and soya free. In fact you can adapt this recipe to suit your needs. Add different fruit and seeds depending on what you have in the cupboard. I added goji berries and chia seeds and didn’t have any apricot of prunes and it still turned out just fine.
This is what you’ll need…
- 100g pitted dates
- 100g prunes , stoned removed if necessary
- 2 ripe or slightly over-ripe medium bananas, peeled
- 150g honey
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 325g medium porridge oats, or jumbo oats
- 100g raisins
- 100g unsulphured ready-to-eat dried apricots, finely chopped
- 25g shelled hemp seeds
- 25g linseeds
- 25g sesame seeds
- 25g sunflower seeds
Now you’ve got all the ingredients lined up, you will need to:
- Line a shallow baking tray, about 20 x 30cm, with baking parchment.
- Put the dates, prunes, bananas, honey, coconut oil and 2 tablespoons water in a food processor and blitz to a thick, fruit-flecked puree.
- In a large bowl, combine the oats, raisins, chopped apricots and seeds.
- Stir in the pureed fruit and honey and mix well (your hands may be the best tool for this job).
- Tip the fruity oat mixture into the prepared tin and gently press it out, getting it as even and level as you can.
- Put the tray in the fridge for 2–3 hours to allow the flapjack to set, then turn out on to a board and slice into bars.
Keep in a plastic container in the fridge and eat within a week. No problem there, these are going like hot (cold) cakes.
Where the instructions suggest using your hands above I would agree. Get your hands dirty and really mix up the ingredients. Because the recipe contains coconut oil you will get lovely soft hands into the bargain.
What do they taste like?
I’ve given these to my Mum and her friend who both had seconds and said they were definitely going to try this themselves. Husband-who-can-eat-anything-apart-from-snails ordered me to “put the lid back on!” which is a good sign. He will try my often burnt offerings out of politeness but he really liked these and ate quite a few in one sitting, but not as many as me. Well I was the cook, it’s allowed, I had to make sure they really did taste this good.
I took some to my friends Jane and Michael. Jane pronounced these were, “The best flapjacks in the world!”
They are absolutely moreish. No worries about flapjacks that you need a pick axe to crack. No checking the oven, missing the alarm and varying results. This way leads to perfect and absolutely delicious, soft, moist and totally scrumptious flapjacks EVERY time!
Hi
I’m not a fan of coconut oil can i add something else if needed or just leave out.
Thanks jimmy