Toffee Date Flapjacks

I'm pretty into hiking at the moment, and on our long hikes, it's a good idea to make sure you have enough food :) Better yet that it tastes great to keep your mood up when the weather/terrain turns nasty. Porridge oats are a fantastic source of slow-release energy, and they shouldn't be overly messy to eat (unless you decided to make them extra sticky with a sauce or chocolate of course). Flapjacks are a quick and simple traybake, which seemed like an obvious choice for a high energy food.

I wanted something slightly different to the normal flapjack, which traditionally is just butter, white sugar, golden syrup and porridge oats. By switching the white sugar with  light soft brown sugar, and the golden syrup for treacle, you get a lovely deep toffee-like flavour. Dates are used in sticky toffee pudding to give the ultimate toffee hit, and add an extra dimension to these flapjacks.
If you're not taking these on a hike and don't mind them being sticky, you could dip these in caramel sauce for a decadent snack.

Makes 16-20 (fills one 20cm square cake tin)

Ingredients:

• 150g (2/3 cup) lightly salted butter
• 125g (3/5 cup) light soft brown sugar
• 1 tbsp treacle
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 225g (1 cup) whole porridge oats
• 100g (1/2 cup + 2 tsp) dates, pitted and chopped into 1cm cubes
• 50g (1/4 cup) fudge, chopped into 1cm cubes (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 200c (180c fan)/ 400f/ gas mark 6. Grease the base and sides of a 20cm cake tin (I used a silicon one, but a standard one would be fine). Dust lightly with flour.

2. Combine the salted butter, sugar, and treacle in a saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally, until all of the butter has melted.

3. Pour the porridge oats into a mixing bowl and add the cinnamon. Stir, then pour the melted butter/sugar mixture into the bowl. Stir until all of the oats have been coated.

4. Stir in the chopped dates and chopped fudge (if using). Pour into the prepared cake tin. Bake for around 15 minutes, until the top of the flapjacks are turning golden and the mixture doesn't shake when the tray is lightly moved.

5. Remove from the fridge and leave to cool. Turn out and cut into squares.

6. Enjoy!