Date and Orange Flapjack Slice

Today was a day for baking and cooking and spending all morning in the kitchen. I made a Japanese (ish) bento for the first time in ages, with a whole selection of my favourite things, but when I posted my photos on instagram, it was the photo of the date and orange flapjack slice I made that got all the likes.

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. After all, the recipe did come from my Mum and she is known for her delicious, crowd pleasing cakes. There are so many cakes that she makes regularly and all of them are delicious; smartie cookies, brownies, date loaf, caramel shortbread, mars bar cake, hot cross buns, chocolate biscuit cake, dark ginger cake, ginger shortbread, apple scone...is your mouth watering yet? Whilst none of the recipes are of her own devising, she has a hoarders instinct for finding fantastic recipes from here there and everywhere! When my friends and I were at University, she did a fantastic job of posting cakes round to everyone when budgets were low and exam stress high. While I tell myself my friends visit my house to see me, the amount of time we always seem to spend in the kitchen suggests that Mum's cake tins are a definite draw too!

Despite all these delicious offerings, I've only ever posted one, chocolate brownies, which is probably the most generic of all her recipes! It is really yummy though, so give it a go if you want something super easy. After I'd posted the photo of my flapjack, 2 of my friends asked for the recipe, so I thought I'd share it on here. I might even share some more of her recipes too...of the list above, which one tickles your tastebuds the most?!

So anyway, today I'm going to share the orange flapjack recipe to please Stacey and Alaina! The end result is sweet and gooey, not nearly as dry as a usual flapjack, but because of all those oats you can still kid yourself it's vaguely healthy! I'm normally a flapjack hater, but I love it, and my boyfriend is normally a citrus hater, but he loves it. Basically, its yummy. Make it, eat it.

Date and Orange Flapjack Slice Recipe

4oz (100g) self raising flour
6oz (150g) porridge oats
6oz (150g) soft brown sugar (today I used half muscavado and half white castor)
6oz (150g) marg (if you use a dairy free marg, the whole recipe is vegan. I used Pure Soya)
1 large orange, rind and juice (separately)
8oz (200g) roughly chopped dates
Pinch bicarb of soda (baking soda)

Preheat oven to gas mark 5/190C/375F and line a 6"x8" (roughly) tin with non stick paper.
Put dates, orange juice and bicarb in a small saucepan. Add a large splash of water, so the dates are mostly covered. Heat over a low heat, stirring frequently, until the dates disintergrate and it turns into a delicious sticky mess. Put to one side to cool slightly.
Melt the marg, then stir in flour, oats, sugar and orange rind.
Put half the oat mixture into the tin and press down. It needs some help to get it to cover the whole bottom, but a lot of squishing will get it there.
Spread all of the date mixture over the top.
Cover with the rest of the oat mixture. This is a bit stressful, as the dates are too soft and the flapjack is too hard! Mum's top tip is to basically slice the flapjack mixture up and put it on top of the dates sliced up, so you don't have to spread it. My take is just to grab bits, use my fingers to smoosh them flat and dump them on the top. Either way works!
Put in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Take out and leave to cool in the tin.

All boxed up and ready to send to this month's foodie penpal!