Date flapjack

This morning has been spent sorting out the food cupboards. I have plenty of tins to keep us going during January. I've stocked up on chick peas (for hummus, falafel and soups) and tomatoes, good for just about everything although I haven't tried them in desserts yet! Have you noticed that the price of tinned tomatoes has nearly doubled over the past year so I tend to stock up whenever they're half price. I've tried the value tomatoes from all the major supermarkets but they seem to include less tomatoes than the napolina brand so I always look out for them on special offer. As I was sorting out the cupboards today, I noticed I still had some dried dates so I decided to use them in my flapjack recipe. I made plain flapjack for ds and then I add dates for the other half of the flapjack. Here is the recipe..

Chop up 200g of dried dates and add 250ml of water. Boil together until they have become a date purée (make sure you stir the mixture so that it doesn't burn on the bottom).

For the flapjack, melt 175g Pure margarine with 175g Demerara sugar and 2tbsp golden syrup. Take off the heat and add 225g rolled oats. If the mixture looks to wet, add some more oats. Spread out half of the mixture in the baking tray. Spread the date mixture on top and then spread the rest of the flapjack mixture on top. Bake for 15 minutes at 170 degrees centigrade. Once out of the oven, cut into 12 portions.

These will be headed into my lunch box next week. While I was sorting out the food cupboards, I fund some more packets of instant yeast. As I was cutting them in half to put into a glass jar, I cut one too far over so the yeast started to fall out. Oops. So I had to make some bread - here it is waiting to rise.

I weighed out 500g of strong plain flour and added the yeast and 1.5tsp salt. I then added 325ml of warm water and mixed well. Is used the dough hook in my mixer and kneaded for about 5 minutes. It's rising as a write so should be ready for shaping soon.