Its been a grey day today, its rained. Clearly the sun is having a day off from its long stay in London town. After a lazy start and an online HIIT class, which nearly killed me, I was asked very nicely by Mr Life London Food to make some flapjacks,

Flapjacks are something I make a lot as they are a good treat to have in the house and also freeze well. They are also so damn easy to make and take no time at all. They are also naturally gluten free which I love ( assuming you use safe oats).

For anyone who has never made them  – do! They are easy, full of yummy oats and a delicious sweet treat. I just use a quick basic recipe that has been knocking around in my head for a while.

Ingredients

250g Jumbo Porridge Oats

125g butter or margarine

125g soft brown sugar

3 tbsp golden syrup.

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees(fan), and grease  and line a 20cm x 20cm square tin.
2. Put the butter or margarine, sugar and syrup into a pan and over a gentle heat melt them altogether, stir to make sure it mixes well and does not burn.
3. Tip the oats into the pan with the melted ingredients. Mix thoroughly making sure all the oats are coated in the sugary goodness.
4. Tip the mixture into the greased tin and flatten out the oats with the back of a spoon until flat and spread evenly. Put into the oven for 15 minutes until golden brown.
5. Leave in the tin to cool, but first cut the flapjacks into pieces while in the tin. Score lines through the still hot oats. Once cooled, take  out of the tin and divide down the lines you had scored through the oats previously.
6. Eat!

With hot golden oats cooling I got a taste for baking, and with time on my hands I decided to have a go at making gluten free madeleines. They are something we tend to buy in the supermarket as they are one of the few things that are gluten free that taste how they should. I also used to make them before going gluten free. I had a flick through the internet and found a recipe on Doves Farm website, so I gave it a go. They turned out ok.

Its a little fiddly as it requires whisking the egg whites to a peak, melting butter and lots of gentle folding but it actually didn’t take all that long to make.

They turned out ok and taste nice. They do not have the hump that normally forms on madeleines, except two of them. I perhaps need to whisk the egg whites a bit more, but right now I am not bothered as they taste pretty good.

So its Friday, I have a kitchen filled with baked goods, its got to be wine o’clock somewhere right?!