Mountain Fruit Flapjacks
I first made these vegan berry flapjacks for a winter bothy trip to the Cairngorms, and then made them again for a winter trip to the Highlands with the Women's Alpine Adventure Club the next year. But they're based on the vegan flapjacks we used to make at the Castle Climbing Centre, in the old cafe kitchen that used to be near the bouldering area up the metal stairs. We used to jam them full of garden gooseberries, currants or even rhubarb, whatever we had a glut of from the garden. We made them with veg oil, not coconut oil like my new method, but boiling down the fruit with sugar and golden syrup first basically turns the fruit into a jam that binds it all.
Aim for this year is to collect some Scottish berries in the hills in the summer - the valley on the way up to Càrn a' Mhàim was full of blaeberries, raspberries and wild strawberries one year, so will have to bring a bag for a forage next time and freeze them, to have a taste of Scottish summer hills while out in Scottish winter hills.
Ingredients
• 200 g sugar
• 150 g golden syrup
• 200 g coconut oil
• 150 g frozen berries (roughly chopped if large)
• 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
• 400 g oats (I often use a mix of jumbo oats, rye flakes and barley flakes)
• 100 g omega mix / seeds and/or desiccated coconut
• Optional: 1 tbsp almond butter
• Optional: using a sheet of filo pastry instead of greaseproof paper to hold the base together
Method
Line a brownie tin (or similar) with greaseproof paper/oiled filo sheet, and heat the oven to 180°C.
In a saucepan, melt the sugar, golden syrup and coconut oil together over a medium heat until it becomes a runny caramel. This usually takes around 10 minutes. Try not to stir it too much - swirling the pan works better. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn or clump.
Add the frozen berries and let them cook down in the caramel. The water from the fruit needs to boil off and the mixture should turn into a pinky-purple caramel. This takes roughly another 8 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat, then add the grated ginger, oats/flakes, seeds (and almond butter if using). Mix well so everything gets coated in the fruity caramel.
All the flakes should be fairly well covered. It’s tempting to add extra oats or seeds to lower the sugar per bar, but if you push it too far they won’t hold together (I’ve done this many times).
Press the mixture firmly into the lined tin. About 1 inch thick works well.
Bake for 25 minutes at 180°C, until lightly golden at the edges.
Allow to cool completely in the tin before cutting - they firm up as they set.
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