Chocolate Flapjacks

Cupcake wanted to do a bit of cooking so we decided to do something with a bit of pouring and stirring and mixing. Nothing too long-winded, complicated or time consuming. (Nine year olds get bored quickly!) So we went for Chocolate Flapjacks.

We followed the recipe in a book that my brother bought me called 'Willie's Chocolate Factory' cookbook. It's the story of a chap called Willie Harcourt-Cooze who bought a farm and grew his own cacao beans in the Cloud Mountains of Venezuela. I've had the book quite a while now, but as I recall it was an enjoyable read and it did prompt me to go and buy some of his lovely single-estate cacao from that lovely department store in London that is Selfridges.  You can find out more about him and his cacao endeavours here: http://www.williescacao.com/

The cacao is pure cacao. It tastes heavenly. With the addition of golden syrup, these flapjacks are still very sweet with rich chocolaty undertones.

Of course, as always, I modified the recipe to match what I had in my cupboards.

Here is what we used:

100gr margarine (Recipe states butter, but I know you can substitute marg in a flapjack)
100gr unrefined caster sugar (Recipe states light soft brown sugar - this would give a richer resulting flapjack.. but I didn't have any ...)
6tbsp golden syrup (Yup. That's a lot of syrup.)
50gr cacao, finely grated (I used Willie's 100% cacao - yippee ! As I had some.) The book says you can substitute with other high-percentage chocolates. I would probably use an 85% cacao chocolate in this and use about 10-20gr less margarine.
300gr porridge oats (OK.. I know lots of recipes always say to use a certain kind of oat, although this recipe didn't .. I only had jumbo oats and those worked .. )

Method
This is so easy - I love it.

1. Preheat the oven to 180 deg (fan oven). Lightly grease or line a square tin (25x20cm approx)
2. Heat the sugar, golden syrup and margarine (or butter) in a saucepan, over a moderate heat, until all is melted and smelling sublime.
3. Grate in the chocolate. Stir.
4. Mix in the oats. Stir until all nicely combined.
5. Put into tin.
6. Press the mixture down with the back of a spoon. I always find the mixture sticks to the spoon when I do this. So, I take a small piece of my baking paper and put that on the flapjack mix and then use my fingers to flatten it down. The paper doesn't stick to the flapjack and nor do my fingers. Perfect.
7. Bake for 20-25 mins until golden.
8. Once cooled, remove from the tin and cut into 12 slices. These will keep in an airtight Tupperware box.

Perfect for a midweek treat.

Here's one I ate earlier with a cup of tea. These will go down well with your family and friends. Guaranteed. Bon Appetit !