Apple Flapjack

A friend of mine has a BIG apple tree in her garden that produces a lot of Bramley apples.
I just can't resit her offer of huge bags full of such lovely, juicy and tangy fruit.
So, I've been busy making apple chutney, muffins and cakes.... goodness knows pretty much everything I could think of.  When I almost ran out of ideas for using up the apples, I came across a recipe for "Apple Flapjack" which is not "crunchy" flapjack, but is very moist.
I suppose it's a different type of snack and very morish, a great afternoon treat for sure.

Ingredients

• 250g (8oz) butter or low-fat spread 
• 250g (8oz) caster sugar
• 175g (6oz) golden syrup 425g (14oz) porridge oats
• 2 apples (I used 300g of grated Bramley apples, which turned out VERY moist. Use 200g of Apples for a less moist result)

Method

1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4, 180°C, fan160°C. Line a 20 x 30cm (8 x 12in) cake tin with non-stick baking paper.
2. Melt butter, caster sugar and golden syrup together in a pan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the oats and apples.
3. Spread the mixture in the tin and sprinkle cinnamon sugar and bake for 25-30 minutes. Cut into 12-14 bars; allow to cool before turning out of the tin. 

Sweet Chestnut Swiss Roll

This Autumn seems to be a very good year for sweet chestnuts. Well, at least our local woods, Ruislip woods, have provided a lot of really good quality sweet chestnuts this year.

Collecting chestnuts is fun and we got so many. I made 2 jam jars and one ice cream tub of chestnut puree. So, I have been trying to be clever using the lovely creamy sweet chestnut puree.

Here is one of my successful attempts to enjoy this Autumn flavour. 

I spread too much puree on the sponge and, unfortunately, I could not Swiss-roll it. 

Can I still call it "Swiss roll"?

Well, let say it's "Ruislip roll." 

Ingredients:

For the Sponge

• 3 eggs
• 75g caster sugar
• 75g self-raising flour

For the Sweet Chestnut Puree

Click here for the recipe

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Grease and line a 23cm x 30cm/9in x 12in Swiss roll tin.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. 

3. Fold in the flour and spoon the mixture into the tin. Bake in the oven 
for 7-10 minutes, or until light and springy to the touch. 

4. Remove from the oven and turn the sponge out onto another piece of greaseproof paper. 

5. For the filling, spread the sweet chestnut puree (click for the recipe) onto the sponge, leaving a small gap around the edges. 

6. Roll the sponge. 

7. Dust with icing sugar and serve.