Blackberry Flapjacks

For air fryer, oven or microwave.

Using an air fryer is the third, and I hope final, cooking method I’ve tested for these fruity flapjacks. That is until I wake up at 3am thinking ‘Could you make flapjacks in a toaster?!’ This time last year I created the recipe to use up some of my expectedly good blackberry crop and this year the plant has managed to pump out another good harvest so here we are again with the perfect excuse to try them out in my shiny, new Ninja Speedi air fryer.

But don’t panic, I’ll also list timings for oven and microwave versions!

INGREDIENTS:

180g oats

125g plain flour

100g sugar

125g melted salted butter

75g golden syrup

125g blackberries

12cm x 20 pyrex dish or any similar sized tin / container suitable for your cooking method.

HOW TO:

• FOR AIR FRYER - pre heat for 5 minutes at 175ºc.

• FOR OVEN - pre heat for 5 minutes at 160ºc.

• FOR MICROWAVE - this next bit is optional but it does impart a lovely toasty flavour to the flapjacks that is otherwise missing when cooked this way. In a wide pan / frying pan dry toast the oats until they start to turn golden brown and you can smell them toasting. Switch off the heat and add all the other ingredients to the oats and use the hot pan as your mixing bowl. You can leave the butter solid and the residual heat will melt it. Of course if you can’t be bothered with this just follow the steps below.

• Add to a large bowl, the oats, flour, sugar and salt and mix.

• Pour over the melted butter and golden syrup and mix.

• Divide the dough in two and press one half into the base of the lined dish.

• Add the fruit, you can use whatever sort you like, peaches, blueberries, strawberries (see, I can list fruits), defrosted frozen fruit works well but drain away the liquid.

• Crumble the other half of the dough over the fruit and then gently press and smooth the top.

BAKING:

• AIR FRYER - cover the top of the flapjack with piece of tin foil so the top doesn’t brown too quickly. Set to bake setting (on my Speedi I used bake / roast) and bake at 175ºc for 30 minutes. After 20 minutes remove the foil so the top gets some colour.

• OVEN - Bake in the middle of the oven set to 160ºc fan for 40 minutes. To save electricity you could bake this at the bottom of the oven while something more sensible, like a meal, is cooking above it at a higher temperature. Even in a fan oven the bottom is much cooler than the middle or the top and with this recipe nothing is going to collapse because of a 5 to 15ºc difference.

• MICROWAVE

• 700w: Cook 3 minutes, Rest  1 minute, Cook 3 minutes.

• 800w (approximate timings): Cook 2 minutes 30 seconds, Rest 1 minute, Cook 2 minutes 30 seconds

• 900w (approximate timings): Cook 2 minutes, Rest 1 minute, Cook 2 minutes

• 1000w (approximate timings): Cook 1 minute 30 seconds, Rest 1 minute, Cook 1 minute 30 seconds