…get baking.
The flat in which I now live was previously occupied by the church’s curate. Unlike a normal house move, when I arrived at the flat there was a pile of things benevolently left to me by my former colleague – a dvd player, a copy of LOTR (how I laughed), a wealth of cleaning materials, an umbrella and a huge range of jars containing all manner of goodies. Previous curate was a skilled cooker of roast dinners, so many of the jars were condiments suited to such meals (red currant jelly, mint sauce etc), all of which will come in handy once I finally get around to cooking my first ever roast dinner.
Also amongst the selection were two jars of stem ginger in syrup, which presented something of a challenge. What can you use two (large) jars of ginger for? Too much ginger is overpowering, but surely there had to be ways of getting through it? Logically, my mind turned to baking – specifically, ginger biscuits. Everyone loves a ginger biscuit, no?
So I tried out a recipe for ‘best-ever’ stem ginger biscuits. They were fine, except they only used one ball of stem ginger and each jar appeared to contain twelve of them. It would take many, many batches of biscuits before I’d erased the ginger stash.
In the week leading up to Greenbelt, I had a bit of a brainwave: ginger flapjack – surely that had to use more ginger than the biscuits did? I successfully located a recipe that required three times as much ginger as the biscuits, tried it, took it to the festival where it was met with joyous acclaim from my camping companions. [When camping, flapjack is a completely legitimate breakfast food.]
Now that it’s properly autumnal – nay wintery – I’ve whipped the recipe out and modified it for my own uses.
Stem Ginger Flapjacks
175g Butter
175g Golden Syrup
175g Light Brown Sugar
355g Porridge Oats
1/2 tbsp Ground Ginger
1tsp Cinnamon
3 Pieces of Stem Ginger
1. Mix butter, syrup & sugar in a large saucepan. Melt over a low heat.
2. Bring to the boil and remove saucepan from the heat.
3. Add oats, ground ginger & cinnamon. Mix thoroughly until combined.
4. Chop ginger pieces and mix into the porridge mixture.
5. Pour mixture into a square tin (approximately 15cm x 15cm).
6. Place into a pre-heated oven at 150C/Gas Mark 2 for 40 minutes, until golden.
7. Leave to cool before cutting into pieces.
I prefer my flapjacks on the squidgier end of the spectrum, so I’ve slightly reduced the quantity of oats. I am also a huge fan of autumnal spices, so added a dash of cinnamon to the mix. Not too much, but just enough to complement the ginger. The end result is something equivalent to perfection on a cold, blustery afternoon.
Before the oven; after the oven & ready to eat.
Speak Your Mind