- Serves 15 or 16 - Ready in 1 hour 30 minutes (excluding cooling time, as it is nice to eat hot or cold) -
*uses up 8 medium-sized apples (yes eight!)*
This recipe has chopped apple in amongst the oats, a layer of apple sauce in the centre AND apple slices on the top - it is perfect for when you have a glut of apples. Any apple types work well in it (or a combination of types).
Gather together…
8 average-sized apples (cooking apples or eating apples both work, or a mixture of them works fine too).
1 tbsp water.
175g butter (sliced and ready to melt).
150ml runny honey.
400g (5 cups) rolled porridge oats.
2 tbsp sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds (de-hulled, ready for eating).
140g (1 cup) sultanas.
1 tsp ground cinnamon.
1/2 tsp ground ginger.
Plus...
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon - to cover the apple slices on top.
2 tsp brown sugar.
Get cooking…
1. Butter-grease a baking tin which is at least 9" x 9" (23cm square) - or use a roughly A4-paper sized rectangular tin. The tin MUST be deep sided, at least 5 cm in depth. Set the prepared tin aisde.
2. Peel, de-core and slice into crescent-moon-shaped eighths (1/8s) ALL of the 8 apples. Immediately put the slices into a large bowl of cold water (but don't use your largest saucepan as you'll need it soon). Place a saucer on top of the slices to weigh them down - so that the air doesn't brown them too much.
3. Retrieve 3 apples-worth of slices (so approximately 24 pieces) from the cold water and put them into a small, lidded saucepan with the 1 tbsp of extra water.
4. Gently simmer the apple slices on the hob on a LOW heat for 10 - 15 minutes, with the LID ON, until really soft and fluffy. Stir every 5 minutes or so to ensure they don't stick to the bottom of the pan - once soft, remove from the heat and set aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 200 C (180 C fan) or Gas 6.
6. Meanwhile put the 175g of butter and the 150ml of runny honey into a LARGE saucepan (I use a 5 litre pan) and melt gently over a LOW heat on the hob - the ingredients will take about 2 minutes to melt and combine. Stir well then immediately remove from the heat so you don't burn the butter.
7. To the large, cooling pan add the 5 cups of oats, the 2 tbsp of seeds, the 1 cup of sultanas, the 1 tsp of cinnamon and the 1/2 tsp of ground ginger. Stir really well to combine and set the large pan aside. It will seem a dry-ish consistency, but adding the apple later will bind the oats perfectly.
8. Leaving 15 or 16 nicely shaped apple slices in the water for decorating the top later - as you might want to do 5 rows of 3 (=15) or 4 rows of 4 (= 16) depending on the shape of the tin, retrieve the rest of the slices (so approximately 24 slices of apple) and chop up into very small chunks (so cut each crescent moon slice into about 10 pieces each).
9. Add these small chunks of apple to the oaty mixture and again stir well.
10. Tip HALF of the oaty mixture into the butter-greased baking tin and flatten it down REALLY WELL and right into the corners, with the back of a metal spoon.
11. Use a potato masher to mash the heated apple slices (if needed, it might be mush already) in the little pan, until the consistency of dry-ish apple sauce - spread this apple sauce evenly over the oaty layer in the tin.
12. Tip the rest of the oaty mixture over the layer of applesauce and again press down firmly in the tin - the potato masher is helpful to use to press with at this stage.
13. On a plate, combine the 1/2 tsp cinnamon and the 2 tsp of brown sugar.
14. Retrieve the remaining apple slices from the water (about 2 apples-worth left, so approximately 16 slices) and pat them dry on a clean tea towel.
15. Roll these slices in the cinnamon-sugar to coat them, then use them to top your creation in whichever pattern you choose (press them down firmly into the oats, so the slices are half submerged, as they will shrink and could become loose during baking). Any leftover cinnamon-sugar can be sprinkled over the rest of the tray.
16. Bake your creation for 35 - 45 minutes in the oven - the edges will be turning dark brown once it is ready.
17. Leave to cool in the tin (put the tin on a wire rack to assist cooling) or dig in whilst still warm! This has a crumbly consistency so you will need a plate and spoon to eat it with, and maybe some custard or ice cream...
18. Store in an airtight container once cooled and eat up within 3 days.
Slightly adapted from the 'Apple Flapjacks' recipe in the book 'Apple' by James Rich - the original recipe uses different apple types for each apple stage, whereas I just had a glut of regular-sized eating apples to use up and I needed to prep them all in the same way, to keep things simple when baking with a toddler 'helping' me! I made the oaty mix in one large saucepan to reduce washing up. The quantity of sultanas I increased to make measuring them out with a cup nice and easy. Also, I reduced the amount of ground ginger inside the bake and I added the dusting of brown sugar/cinnamon on the top apple slices (without the dusting the apple slices would look a bit plain).