Cycling Flapjack - 2018 Version (Cherry, Chocolate and Almonds)

Still my most requested recipe, I still tweak this occasionally. I was thrown a curveball recently when I had a request for a no-banana version, due to an allergy.

You can break the various ingredients in the flapjack down by purpose, and the banana was used as a binding agent (rather than butter, which obviously adds loads of fat in, which isn't ideal). I did some reading around, and saw a suggestion that baked sweet potato could be used as an alternative. Sounds a tad weird adding baked potato into flapjack, but it was the best I could come up with, so I gave it a go. It actually worked really well, with a good consistency and taste.

I can't seem to find it online, but I use a swiss roll tin from John Lewis that is exactly 30cm x 20cm, and (rare for cake tins) has sharp corners. It is literally my favourite traybake tin, as you get a good clean edge, and it's easy to measure and cut neatly. I chop this up into 20 slices (10cm x 3cm) and wrap each one in foil-backed paking parchment. I've put the nutrition breakdown below, however if you do 20 slices each bar is just shy of 200 calories each.

I'd like to do some other flavours for this. I watched a short video on how SIS make their energy bars (I don't like them, the texture is far too chewy, and can be incredibly hard in cool weather). I'd also like to knock the fat down a little more, and add some more protein in, so thats a project for the coming year!

Cherry, Chocolate and Almond Flapjack - Recipe

• Grease and line a 30cm x 20cm swiss roll tin with baking parchment

Ingredients

• 50g unsalted butter
• 25g caster sugar
• 150g fructose sugar
• 50g golden syrup
• 200g condensed milk
• 2 sweet potatoes / 150g baked sweet potato (see recipe)
• 1 large egg
• 400g rolled oats
• 100g flaked almonds
• 50g dark (50%) chocolate drops
• 50g dried cherries
• ½tsp salt
• ½tsp almond essence  

1) Take the 2 sweet potatoes, and prick all over with a fork

2) Place on a foil-covered baking sheet, and place in the oven

3) Turn the oven to 200'C, and bake the sweet potato for an hour (just to confirm, the hour includes the time the oven takes to warm up)

4) Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven, and turn it down to 160'C

5) Cut the baked sweet potatoes in half, and scoop the soft flesh out into a bowl

6) In a large saucepan, place the caster sugar, fructose sugar, golden syrup, butter, and 150g of the sweet potato. Also add the salt and almond essence.

7) Place over a low heat and stir until everything is melted together and smooth (you don't want it to boil)

8) Remove from the heat, and stir in the condensed milk.

9) Beat the egg slightly, and also add into the bowl.

10) Stir in the oats and flaked almonds, stirring thoroughly to ensure everything is coated.

11) Leave the mixture to cool a bit. While this is happening, chop the dried cherries into smaller pieces (I normally do in half or in third, using scissors...this means that it is more evenly spread throughout the mixture)

12) Stir in the chopped dried cherries and chocolate drops (now the mixture has cooled a bit they shouldn't melt too much)

13) Scrape into the prepared swiss roll tin, and using a spatula push into the corners, and flatten the surface. Ensure the depth is the same all over the tin.

14) Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. It should just be browning at the edges

15) Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. Once cool place in the fridge to chill, ideally overnight (this makes it much easier to slice neatly).

16) Chop into 20 bars (10cm x 3cm), and wrap each one in foil-backed greaseproof paper. It's worth doing neatly, as it makes it easier to eat on the go.

17) Store in the fridge for upto 2 weeks (like it ever lasts that long).

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Chilli, Chocolate and Cherry Flapjack (small batch)

It was glorious weather at the weekend, so it was time for some long hours on the bike, and for that I needed some fuel.  I didn't want to do a full batch of the cycling flapjack...partly as it would involve getting some more fructose sugar, and partly it then sits in the fridge, and I have a habit of eating it. So, instead, I did a half-batch of a tweaked variety...which also happened to use some chocolate I picked up cheaply that had chilli in it...a new experiment!

This is a slightly softer flapjack than the cycling one, mainly due to more wet ingredients. To serve it I chopped it up into 5cm x 5cm slices, and then wrapped them in foil-lined baking parchment, and popped them in a jersey pocket, where they went down very well! The heat from the shilli is actually quite pleasant, and comes through after the sweetness.

Chilli, Chocolate and Cherry Flapjack

• Pre-heat oven to 160'C
• Line a 20cm x 15cm tin with baking parchment (this is officially a battenberg tin, but it works well for small traybakes as well)

Ingredients

• 30g butter
• 80g sliced banana
• 40g golden syrup
• 80g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 100g condensed milk
• 250g rolled oats
• 50g dried cherries
• 50g dark chilli chocolate, chopped

1) Place the butter, banana, golden syrup and caster sugar in a large saucepan

2) Place over a low heat, and mash the banana and butter until smooth, and the sugar has fully melted/dissolved

3) Remove from the heat

4) Stir in the condensed milk

5) Whisk in the egg

6) Add the oats and cherries, and stir until combined and everything is coated

7) Place half the mixture in teh prepared tin, and level

8) Spread the chopped chocolate over the mixture evenly

9) Spread the remainder of the mixture over the top of the chocolate, endeavouring to cover it entirely

10) Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden and firm to the touch

11) Remove from the oven, and leave to cool on a wire rack

12) Chill overnight, then slice and wrap

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Orange and Sultana Traybake

A bank holiday weekend, with plenty of cycling, meant that most of the baking was fast, easy stuff. This one was whipped up for post-race fuel for the team, and was taken from Mary Berrys Baking Bible. It's a nice and simple "throw it all in a bowl" recipe. Slightly dissapointed that the sultanas sank a bit (probably should have coated them in flour), but the taste made up for it.

Orange and Sultana Traybake - Recipe

• Pre-heat oven to 160'C
• Grease and line a traybake tin with baking parchment

Ingredients

• 225g butter (room temperture)
• 225g caster sugar
• 275g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder (about 8g)
• 4 large eggs
• 30ml milk
• 275g sultanas
• Zest of 2 oranges 
• Demerara sugar (to decorate)

1) Put all the ingredients apart from the demerara sugar into a stand mixer with the paddle attachment

2) Mix until combined and smooth

3) Pour into the prepared traybake tin, and smooth with a small pallette knife

4) Bake for 25 minutes

5) Sprinkle the top with demerara sugar, then bake for another 10 minutes

6) Leave to cool, the remove from the tin and slice into generous chunks

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Millionaires Shortbread

I'm off on holiday tomorrow, so using up food in the house. I wanted to make some snacks for the journey, however I had the challenge of no eggs, and really not much else. I did a bit of checking round the kitchen, and worked out I had everything I needed for some millionaires shortbread, so long as I made some interesting substitutions;

1. Self-raising flour in the shortbread rather than plain flour
2. Only half a bar of chocolate to top it with
3. No cream

I've never really liked solid chocolate on millionaires shortbread, so decided to go a ganache instead. No cream, so instead I used the ganache technique that I used for the Opera Cake, a terrible irony when I've just put up my "Basics" ganache recipe! This was a very good example of what you can make if you deal with what's in the cupboard

The end result is actually rather nice...the ratios are a bit off, as I was using volumes from other recipes not exactly designed for millionaires shortbread. I'd tweak a few things;

1. I'd line the tin with paper...my notes for shortbread have you just grease the tin, but its very hard to get it out
2.  Slightly less shortbread, maybe slightly more toffee, though actually it was nice as it was
3. A bit more chocolate...I was limited by what was available.
4. I put the zest of a lemon in the shortbread, which lightened the flavour a bit. Orange would probably be a better choice, and a more classic match to the chocolate and toffee.

Millionaires Shortbread - Recipe

• Pre-heat oven to 160'C
• Grease and line a 20cm x 30cm tray-bake tin with baking parchment (I just greased)

Shortbread Ingredients

• 200g plain flour (I used 225g of self-raising, which made for a quite light biscuit)
• 200g butter (I used 225g)
• 90g semolina flour
• 90g caster sugar (I used granulated)
• Zest of 1 orange (I used lemon)

1) Put the flour and butter in a large mixing bowl

2) Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips into you have a small breadcrumb mixture

3) Add the caster sugar, zest and semolina, and continue to rub in

4) Put the mixture into the prepared traybake tin, and press down into the corners. Don't pack it too solidly, or the shortbread will be very tough

5) Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden on top

6) Remove from the oven, and leave to cool in the tin

Toffee Filling Ingredients

• 400g Condensed milk (1 tin)
• 50g butter
• 50g dark muscavado sugar

1) Put the sugar and butter in a saucepan over a low heat

2) Stir until the sugar is melted, and mixed with the butter

3) Add the condensed milk, and raise the heat to medium

4) Stir for 5-6 minutes while the mixture thickens and starts to boil

5) You want the filling fairly thick, so once it is bubbling stir for 2-3 more minutes, making sure that nothing burns

6) Pour onto the cooled biscuit base, and smooth with a spatula or palette knife.

7) Leave to cool, or pop it in the fridge

Ganache Ingredients

• 100g dark (50% chocolate)
• 60g milk
• 15g butter

1) Chop the chocolate up into small pieces, and place in a heatproof bowl

2) Put the milk in a small saucepan over a low heat

3) Stir the milk gently until just boiling (again, making sure it does not burn on the bottom of the pan)

4) Pour the milk onto the chocolate, and leave to melt the chocolate for 2-3 minutes (if you have trouble getting all the chocolate to melt, you can pop the bowl on top of the saucepan (off the heat, but it will still be warm)

5) Stir the mixture to form a smooth ganache

6) Stir in the butter until it has all melted

7) Pour and smooth the ganache over the cooled toffee, tipping the tray to get it into all the corners and edges.

8) Leave to cool until the ganache has set

9) Chop into squares/slices.

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Insomnia Flapjack

My flapjack now has a bit of a reputation locally...it's pretty good at keeping people going, without the sickliness of gels. One that that was missing, however, was a bit of a kick. There are a lot of caffeine gels on the market today, with varying amounts of the stimulant. I've personally found that careful use of caffeine can really help in-race recovery, and definitely gives you a bit of umph at the end of a long day.

So I did a bit of investigation into how to add caffeine into a bake. There is a lot of research out there, especially around sport, and it's nearly all positive. As a drug, it can dis fat metabolism, concentration, recovery and performance. It does have a few downsides...a bit hit of it will definitely hit your sleep patterns, and there is no "off switch", so once you've taken a dose, you're wired. I've also had a bad experience where I took a large dose (300mg) in a short period of time, and was also dehydrated...the end result being a small black-out while still pedalling (surprisingly I didn't crash, but I did come to riding through nettles about 3 metres off the track). I also needed to be wary of "hotspots", so it was important to get the caffeine mixed evenly in the bake. To this end I added it to the wet mix right at the start. I also got some super-accurate scales, to ensure the dosage was correct.

Initial results are positive...I've had 2 people "trial" it, and both had decent relative performances, and both couldn't sleep! The recipe below will give a dosage of 250mg, assuming you cut it into 16 bars. Unless you know what your tolerance to caffeine is, I would not recommend a higher hit than this. The strongest caffeine gel is 150mg, and most medical opinion is that over 400mg in a day may have undesired side-effects (for reference, the lethal dose is ~10g).

My next goal is to work on some other flavours, while keeping the low-fat/mixed sugar ratios. Chocolate and Cherry is a classic, but it would be good to have some variation.

Insomnia Flapjack - Recipe (makes 16 x 250mg bars)

• Pre-heat the oven to 160'C
• Grease and line a 20 x 30cm tray-bake tin (for nice, even bars, try and find a sharp cornered one)

Ingredients

• 4g 100% caffeine powder (this can be bought on-line...be very careful weighing it out)
• 50g un-salted butter
• 150g ripe banana
• 80g golden syrup
• 25g caster sugar
• 150g fructose sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 200g condensed milk
• ½tsp almond essence
• 5g salt
• 400g porridge oats
• 100g flaked almonds
• 100g dried cherries
• 100g dark chocolate chips

1) Mash the bananas in a large saucepan (large enough to fit all the ingredients)

2) Add the syrup, sugars, salt and butter

3) place over a low heat, and stir until the butter and sugar has melted

4) Add the caffeine, and stir in thoroughly (you do not want any hotspots)

5) Remove from the heat, and stir in the condensed milk and almond essence

6) Add the beaten egg, and stir in

7) Add the flaked almonds and oats, and mix thoroughly, ensuring there are no dry pockets left

8) Stir in the cherries and chocolate drops, making sure they are evenly distributed throughout the mixture

9) Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin, and level it across the surface (the neater you can do this, the better your bars will look)

10) Bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes, until the top is golden

11) remove from the oven, and leave to cool completely in the tin.Then place it in the fridge overnight (this makes cutting easier)

12) For 16 bars, chop into rectangles 10cm x 3.75cm

13) Wrap each one in foil, and store in the fridge until needed

Here's the nutrition breakdown from the original post. Each bar is about 3 blocks from this recipe.

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Carrot Cake

Another "for the cyclists" recipe...this is probably the most popular cake you can ever make. The recipe I use is a Delia Smith one. I had a prolonged discussion in a coffee shop with the "raisins vs walnuts" argument, and there was no general consensus...this recipe uses raisins, however the one I was eating in the coffee shop had walnuts, and that was also delicious!

I particularly like this recipe as it's incredibly moist. It's in effect a drizzle cake, as a syrup of lemon and orange is added to the cake as soon as it;'s out of the oven, and then it cools in the tin, allowing the juice to be sucked back in. The only thing it isn't is that pretty, though there are rarely any complaints.

The recipe is here. Quark can be bought in most supermarkets (typically with the cheese, though I've also seen it hiding in the cream and yoghurt section...). It's "low fat", but it's definitely not healthy...

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Pistachio and Blackcurrant Cake

My mission to get a decent pistachio sponge continues.

This time I did a genoise sponge in a tray-bake tin, and used blackcurrant jam as a filling, then topped it with white chocolate. I broke one of my own rules (never coat a cake with chocolate) as I didn't have any cream to make a ganache...novice! The balance of the genoise was off a bit, as I wasn't sure if I should reduce the flour to allow for the blitzed pistachio. I probably put too much dry ingredient into the sponge, and it was a little dry.

So, I'll do this again (proably for work next time), with the following changes;
1) Less dry ingredients...I'll reduce the flour, as I really want it to be a pistachio sponge mainly
2) Ganache the chocolate
3) Possibly a bit more blackcurrant...it's a really nice tart contrast to the sweetness of the chocolate
4) Try and get the pistachio to a finer grade, or find ground pistachio

Pistachio and Blackcurrant Cake

• Pre-heat oven to 200'C
• Grease and line a swiss-roll tin with baking parchment

Genoise Sponge Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g self-raising flour
• 100g pistachio kernels
• 40g butter (melted, and allowed to cool)

1) Put the eggs and the sugar in a large heatproof bowl over a bain-marie

2) Whisk the eggs and sugar over the heat until it is thick, creamy, and leaves a trail when the whisks are removed (you really need an electric hand-whisk for this, it takes 7-8 minutes)

3) Sieve the flour into a bowl

4) Put the pistachio kernels into a food processor, and blitz to a fine powder

5) Mix the blitzed nuts and flour together

6) Gently fold the flour and nuts into the egg mixture, taking care to keep as much air in the mixture as possible. Stop folding once combined, and any dry pockets have been removed

7) Pour the cool melted butter around the edge of the bowl, and fold in carefully

8) Pour the batter into the swiss roll tin, and carefully tilt to get the batter into the corners

9) Bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes. it's done when it springs back in teh middle when you pres gently on it.

10) Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Assembly

• 100g white chocolate
• 3-4tbsp blackcurrant jam
• Blitzed Pistachio (to decorate)

1) Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl in the microwave
Note - I did this by melting 2/3rds of it carefully, then stirring in the final 1/3rd. This cools the mixture down. Do the microwave in short bursts, stirring after each burst to dissipate hot spots

2) Cut the sponge in half, to form 2 equal-sized rectangles

3) Spread one rectangle with the jam, getting it all the way to the edge

4) Form a sandwich, with the jam in the middle

5) Coat the top of the cake with the white chocolate

6) Sprinkle the top with the blitzed pistachio

7) Allow the chocolate to set before slicing.

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Carrot Cake

Saturday was supposed to be the first race in the ORRL, which is the main series of road races for lower-level riders in this area. I was really looking forward to it, and it would have been my first big race representing the club. A key part of any race is the post-event "nutrition", so I made a carrot cake, which I think may be the single most popular cake for cyclists (based on what seems to vanish first at cafes)

After all this work, the race was cancelled very last minute (frustratingly down to what sounds like an admin error), something that left a lot of racers, volunteers and organisers a bit annoyed...we did a hard ride as a team, but not really the same, and felt like I've missed out on a good race...but at least I had a cake to console myself with!

I did this as a tray-bake, but you could easily use the same ratios to make a more traditional layered cake, and put the cream cheese filling in between. It rises very evenly, so would be well suited to a layered cake.

Carrot Cake - Recipe

• Pre-heat oven to 170'C
• Grease and line a 20cmx30cm tray-bake tin

Cake Ingredients

• 175g dark soft brown sugar
• 120ml sunflower oil
• 200g wholemeal, self-raising flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1½tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3-4tsp mixed spice
• 6 cardamon pods, crushed, with shells removed
• zest of 1 orange
• 175g sultanas
• 200g grated carrot

1) Put the sugar, oil and eggs in a bowl, and whisk with an electric whisk for 2-3 minutes, until light and creamy

2) Sieve the flour, bicarb, mixed spice together, and then combine with the egg and oil mixture (this is one of those cases where you want to just combine everything, but don't over-mix it, or the air will go out and you'll have a heavy, dense cake)

3) Fold in the carrots, sultanas, zest and crushed cardamon

4) Pour the mixture into the prepared tray bake tin

5) Bake in the oven for 35 minutes

6) While the cake is baking, prepare the syrup and toppings

Syrup Ingredients

• Juice of ½ an orange
• 15g lemon juice
• 40g soft dark brown sugar

1) In a small jar, thoroughly miss the juices and sugar, until all the sugar has dissolved

2) Once the cake has baked, remove from the oven to a wire rack, leaving it in the tin

3) Quickly, skewer the top, then pour the syrup evenly over the cake, allowing it to sink in.

4) Leave the cake in the tin until it is completely cool (this allows the syrup to absorb into the cake)

Cream Cheese Topping Ingredients

• 250g mascarpone (or Quark, if you want a slightly healthier option)
• 20g caster sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1tsp ground cinnamon

1) Place all the ingredients in a bowl

2) Whisk with an electric whisk until smooth and creamy and firm

3) Cover with clingfilm, and chill in the fridge until needed

Praline Topping Ingredients

• 50g caster sugar
• 50g walnut pieces
• ~40-50ml water

1) prepare a sheet of baking parchment to placing on a work surface, and lightly greasing (this is to turn the praline out onto to set)

2) Place the water and sugar in a very clean, small saucepan

3) gently heat until all the sugar has dissolved

4) Bring to the boil, and continue to boil until it begins to go brown.

5) Once the sugar is nut-brown, remove the the heat and quickly stir in the walnut pieces

6) Scrape out onto the prepared baking parchment to set

7) Once cool, place in a plastic bag and smash it up with a rolling pin

Assembly

1) remove the completely cool cake from the tin, and place on a serving tray

2) Spread the cream cheese topping evenly over the top of the cake

3) Sprinkle the praline over the cream cheese

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