Ingredients
For the flapjacks
- 100g butter, roughly chopped
- 100g golden caster sugar
- finely grated zest of 1 orange
- 2 tbsp marmalade, ideally fine-cut or shredless
- 200g porridge oats
To decorate
- 20g dark chocolate – orange-flavoured if you like, broken into small pieces
Equipment
- 12-hole muffin tin, each hole lined with seatbelt straps (see p.21)
- medium paintbrush
Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4.
Put the butter, sugar, orange zest and marmalade in a medium saucepan. Set it over a medium heat and warm, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir in the oats, combining everything thoroughly.
Spoon the mixture into your lined muffin tin – you’ll need about 37g mixture in each hole (or about 18g if you’re creating mini flapjacks), which will mean each hole is just under half full. I set my tin on a set of digital scales to fill it, but you could weigh the precise quantity into one hole and fill the rest by eye.
Level the mixture with the back of a teaspoon or the base of a small glass or spice jar. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. If you are baking mini flapjacks, they’ll take 8-10 minutes.
Allow the flapjacks to cool completely in the tin before removing them with the help of the parchment straps. Melt the dark chocolate for decorating in a microwave or a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (bain-marie). Use the paintbrush to paint a chocolate pawprint on the top of each flapjack. I usually do this free-hand; the shapes don’t need to be too perfect as they’re supposed to represent muddy pawprints. Leave to set before serving.
Extract taken from Quinntessential Baking by Frances Quinn
Photography © Georgia Glynn Smith