Jammy Flapjacks

I'm sure I'm not alone in having half-empty packets and jars at the back of the cupboard, whether it is an ingredient I bought for a particular recipe or something I've simply forgotten I had... so I was pleased when I saw this month's Random Recipe challenge from Dom at Belleau Kitchen. What's more, it's a thrifty challenge which is always a good thing!

He asked us to "open up the cupboard door, reach in deep and pull out the first thing you touch", and then choose a recipe using that ingredient. Now, I knew that I had neglected ingredients languishing at the back of the larder, and in the cupboard where I keep baking supplies, and in the fridge, and that if I had to choose one cupboard to root around in, I would be making a conscious decision already about what kind of ingredient to use (eg baking or savoury). So instead, I went through all my cupboards and made a list of all the long-forgotten ingredients I felt I ought to use up, and numbered them one to 31 (which made me feel quite guilty!). I then used a random number generator to pick one out, and discovered my random ingredient for this month was..... jam!

Now it doesn't particularly help that I don't like jam, which explains why I had a jar hanging around in the fridge drawer! I was racking my brains about what I could make using jam, and also whether there was another blogging challenge I could enter it in, to kill two birds with one stone. I then remembered that Homemade by Fleur is running a flapjack competition this month and I figured this would be a good way to use the jam.

I found a basic flapjack recipe on the internet to make sure I had the rough quantities right. To begin, I mixed 100g rolled oats, 30g plain flour and 50g ground almonds - another half-empty packet I had in the back of the cupboard!

Melt 75g butter and stir in, along with 1 tbsp golden syrup, mixing everything well.

Press about half the mixture into a greased and lined cake tin

Then spread over a thin layer of jam - I used strawberry.

Sprinkle the rest of the flapjack mix on the top and gently press down.

Bake in the oven at 180C for about 20 mins then cut into pieces. I had wanted to sprinkle some flaked almonds over the top but I couldn't find any. I'm sure I have a packet in the back of the cupboard which probably means I'll find them in six months time!

I did find the flapjacks didn't hold together quite as well as I'd hoped and next time I'd probably use more golden syrup but they didn't turn out too badly at all.

So I'm sending this to Belleau Kitchen for Random Recipes...

and to Homemade by Fleur's Challenge Flapjack

 

I am also sending this to Tea Time Treats, hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked. Their theme for October is jam and preserves, and I originally thought that meant I would have to make jam or curd of some sort - which I've never done before, don't really like eating and haven't had time to do this month! But I tweeted and asked if a recipe including jam would count, even if I hadn't made the jam myself, and they very kindly said yes. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else made for this challenge!