Carrot and apricot flapjacks

Carrot and apricot flapjacks are perfect for a tasty snack with a cup of tea. With a fruity punch the oats will help you feel full for longer.

There are certain times of day when a craving for something sweet hits. The danger time for me is around ten when I need my second cup of tea of the day. It is always tempting to accompany it with a bar of chocolate. January is a time when we start trying to eat more healthily. It is not always easy when it is cold outside. Salads are very much a summer thing. The grey cold January days are more likely to make us reach for food temptations.

Recently AO.com got in touch and asked me if I would like to try creating a healthy and delicious recipe using a Kenwood spiralizer. Having seen the fad for sprializing any vegetables that grow I was happy to give it a go. I rather like the idea of making courgette spaghetti (courgetti?) , carrot noodles (caroodles?) and other exciting dishes. Not only do they look fun to make it is great fun thinking up names for the sprialized creations. Rather than create an exotic spiralized salad I thought I would try a sweet recipe. Carrot and apricot flapjacks were the result.

Using the Kenwood spiralizer

Before doing anything else I had to have a play with the Kenwood spiralizer. It is pretty simple to use. Place the bowl at the bottom to catch the spirialized goodies. Pop in the spirialzing attachment and put the lid on. Attach the food you want to sprialize to the pusher then push it slowly down into the sprializer while it is on. Watch in amazement as ribbons of food appear in the bowl below.

There are two sprializing attachments so you can choose between ribbons or noodles. I experimented with a few different types of food. My first attempt at apples was a miserable failure. On reading the book I saw that you had to cut the end of the fruit or vegetable flat before adding it to the spiralizer. Once I did this the apples worked perfectly. Carrots were a great success and I got a bit over enthusiastic, making rather too many. As well as making carrot and apricot flapjacks I was able to use the excess carrot in cheese savoury sandwiches.

Carrot and Apricot flapjacks

Flapjacks are one of those things I make often. Usually I make fruit flapjacks like coconut and cherry flapjacks. A flapjack will fit perfectly in a lunchbox and makes a great snack with a cup of tea. Because they are full of oats they keep you full for longer. Knowing that  carrot cake works really well I thought I would try adding carrots to flapjacks. The addition of carrots makes it nice and moist as well as sweet. Adding apricots and nuts adds some nice fruitiness and a little crunch.

The carrot and apricot flapjacks are really easy to make as well. Just melt some butter and honey in a pan then add the oats, apricots, nuts and carrots into the pan. Give everything a good stir and empty the mixture into a baking tin. All you need to do then is bake and try and resist the tantalising smell coming from the oven. If you don’t have a sprializer grating the carrots will work just as well.

Carrot and apricot flapjacks recipe

Carrot and apricot flapjacks

Alison

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Ingredients

  

• 2 large carrots
• 175 g 6oz butter
• 200 ml honey
• 150 g 50z dried apricots
• 30 g 1oz chopped hazelnuts
• 450 g 12oz porridge oats

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 180C Gas Mark 4
• Grease a small baking tray and line with baking parchment
• Sprialize or grate the carrots.
• Chop the apricots and nuts into pieces.
• Add the carrots, nuts and apricots to the oats.
• Put the honey and butter into a pan and melt
• Mix all the other ingredients with the melted butter and honey.
• Press into the baking tray
• Bake in the oven for around 15 - 20 minutes until golden.
• Cut into pieces whilst hot then leave to cool in the tin before removing

.Why not pin the recipe to try later?

Do you have a favourite flavour flapjacks that you like to make? Let me know below.

I was sent a sprializer and the money for the ingredients to create the recipe. I was not obliged to say anything nice and my opinions are my own.