Flapjacks from a small island....

How honoured I am to be making a guest entry into this treasure trove of vegan baking delights! I can only hope the following recipe lives up to Alexandra's high standards. Before I tell you about the food perhaps I should explain how my love affair with Alexandra began?

It's really quite simple.

Wherever I go, I seem to get into conversations with people. Those who know me would confirm that I don't always invite it, but I can never rebuff the advances of a chat. This means in every aspect of my life I am a collector of people. I guess some might say I am friendly? And this is what often gets me into trouble. This 'friendliness' can often be mistaken for 'friendship' and quite often I can tie myself in knots trying to 'dispose' of unwanted individuals I have managed to become entwined with. None of those worries with Alexandra. Oh no. From the beginning I knew she was a keeper. We have so much in common. Pretty much the same name; big brown eyes; love to dance and LOVE to bake. Not just the occasional cookie or muffin from a Betty Crocker mix. And not just on special occasions. But you know this. You read this blog. We are baking nerds.

So we meet at dance class start chatting (surprise!) and both shyly admit that we believe that Nigella Lawson is actually a best friend although we've only read her books (also big brown eyes and love of baking mmmm?...Go ahead, call us narcissists we don't care!) After a while I feel safe sharing the fact that I am planning an enormous Christmas baking session and gently ask Alexandra if she would consider joining me in my mixing days preparing fresh mince meat (see recipe on this very blog) and mince pies and Christmas Cake (not at all vegan I'm afraid). Rather than laughing in my face and suggesting rudely that I am stuck in some bygone era when women spent their free-time in the kitchen, Alexandra's eye's lit up and she agreed to join me for an afternoon of baking delight....imagine my joy when I realised I had a real-life baking buddy?! So one chilly afternoon in early November 2006 we bonded over the mixing bowl - or was it the Kitchen Aid? Truly bonded. We realised that this was no infatuation. This was true love running deep in the blood (or that could have been the cider pulsing through our veins?!) Anyway. It began in a shared love of cake in my friend's idyllic little kitchen. In the months that followed, she taught me how to replace refined sugar with agave nectar and what to use in place of eggs and saturated fats. Not that they don't have a place in sweet treats. Just not every day and certainly not on this blog. And here, nearly 18 months later, is my first vegan recipe for you to share and indulge in. I hope you enjoy....and just thank Alexandra when you're done.

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This is a recipe for flapjacks. I think this is an English dish. Like an enormous oatmeal cookie baked in the bottom of an ovenproof dish or tray, left to cool then cut into individual pieces to nibble on. I made them for Damian as he has started cycling to work and needs something healthy to feed the constant hunger brought on by the extra exercise.

You'll need 45 minutes and a blindfold (it's really so simple that anyone can make these delicious morsels without looking).

Ingredients:
About 14oz oats
3 1/2 oz chopped hazlenuts
3 1/2 oz cranberries
3 1/2 oz raisins
3 1/2 oz honey
3 1/2 oz agave nectar
3 1/2 fl oz canola oil
2 oz dessicated coconut
2 oz sunflower seeds
1 x chopped apple
1 x chopped banana


Instructions:
Gently heat the oil and honey in a pan over the stove. Once its warm and very very liquidy add the apple and banana. Cook gently till the fruit is soft. Add the oats. The liquid should cover the oats to make a nice paste-y kind of mixture. If it's looking a bit dry add a drop of oil and drop more honey until it can be stirred nice and easily. Add the remaining ingredients, mixing thoroughly. Don't be shy about adding more liquid if you need it. Keep the heat low. You don't want those oats sticking to the bottom of the pan, they're a pig to scrub off.

When you're done set aside the pan, pre-heat the oven to 350 deg and lightly oil a normal sized baking tray or oven proof dish. The one I used was around 12' x 8'. Tip out the gooey mixture and - making sure you have lovely clean hands - press it out into the bottom of the pan. You want it to be between 1/2 and 1 inch thick - though really there are no rules here - as fat or thin as your dish/mixture ratio allows you.

Pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Let the tray cool completely and tip it out on a wire rack until it's cold. Corners can be nipped off and smuggled into one's mouth at this point. It's allowed. And irresistible!

Once it's cool chop it into squares and scoff away to your heart's content!