Revealed: The secret to flapjacks that don’t fall apart

We are five adults in our house. My shopping bill feels like it. Baking ingredients account for some of it as I love baking. As head chef at work, I only really get to bake at home. I have played around with the recipe and this is my favourite. They are rich, so cut them small and don’t eat too many at a time.

Like so many friends and family, my escape most mornings is to the beach, which is 15 minutes away, for a swim. A dip in the sea deserves a reward: a flapjack with a flask of coffee afterwards.

Dervilla O’Flynn is head chef at Ballymaloe House, in Shanagarry, Co Cork

PEANUT BUTTER AND RAISIN FLAPJACKS

Ingredients
190g butter
175g/100ml golden syrup or rice malt syrup
190g soft brown sugar
110g crunchy peanut butter (100% peanuts with no added sugar)
1 tsp vanilla essence
50g plain flour (I use gluten-free plain flour)
½ tsp ground cinnamon
300g porridge oats (I use Flahavan's organic)
50g desiccated coconut or ground almonds
110g sesame/sunflower/pumpkin seeds, or chopped nuts
110g raisins, dried cranberries, chopped soft apricots or chopped dates
Pinch of sea salt

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Method
1 Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Rub a 20 x 30 cm straight sided baking tin with a tiny bit of butter or tasteless oil.

2 On a low heat, in a large-ish saucepan (big enough to take all the ingredients), melt the butter, golden syrup, sugar and peanut butter, stirring to make an even paste and avoid it sticking. Add the vanilla essence.

3 While those ingredients are melting, weigh out all the other ingredients and mix well with your hands. Pour these into the saucepan and mix thoroughly with a spoon. Sprinkle with a tiny bit of sea salt.

4 Spread the mixture out, pressing it out evenly with the back of the spoon.

5 Bake for 25 minutes until golden. After five minutes cooling, press the flapjacks with something heavy and flat (this compresses them and stops them falling apart). Cool on a wire rack. Cut into squares. They will keep for a week to 10 days in an airtight container and freeze really well.

Kitchen Cabinet is a series of recipes from chefs who are members of Euro-Toques Ireland, who have come together during the coronavirus outbreak to share some of the easy, tasty things that they like to cook and eat at home #ChefsAtHome