No Added Sugar Fruit & Nut Flapjacks

It seems as though lots of people are starting the new year off with a health kick, out with the cakes and puddings and in with the fruit smoothies and crispbread, and this household is no exception. Just before Christmas the husband was told that he's now diabetic, leaving me with a vacant position of chief taste tester (applications on the back of £50 notes please), and no urge to bake (hence the radio silence from my blog), I mean, a cake without sugar is, well, bread...and we have loaves of the stuff cramming every inch of the freezer.

I do like a challenge though, so my aim now is to come up with some healthy (ish) recipes that use little or no added sugar that are also tasty enough for the whole family to enjoy.

First up, flapjacks - they seem pretty healthy, what with all those oats, but they also contain quite a lot of butter and sugar. I've replaced the sugar with dried fruits and the butter with olive oil and thereby reducing the saturated fat significantly (13g in 100ml Olive oil versus 48g in 100g butter). I added a few peanuts to give them a crunch but you can leave these out or replace with another nut - we have an abundance of salted peanuts after Christmas!

No Added Sugar Fruit & Nut Flapjacks - makes 16

125g Dates

125g Dried Apricots

150ml boiling water

100ml Olive Oil

50g peanuts, chopped (I used salted peanuts & rinsed the salt off)

200g Porridge Oats

• Chop the dates & apricots and place in a bowl
• Pour the boiling water over, stir and cover and leave overnight.
• Blend the dates/apricots/water to a paste
• Heat the paste and olive oil in a pan until it comes together - approx 5 minutes, remove from heat
• Stir in the chopped peanuts and oats and stir well
• Press into a well greased 20cm x 20cm square pan - I use a sandwich bag over my hand for this
• Bake in a preheated 180 C oven for 18-20 minutes, until lightly browned
• Cut the flapjacks into squares and allow to cool fully in the tin before removing

I was quite impressed with how well these turned out, they didn't fall apart and are plenty sweet enough. Everyone, apart from Sam (who said they were 'too nutty') liked them too - even Jack, who took one bite, said he didn't like it and then later said he did and ate a whole one, claiming they were 'delicious'.