My eldest was at school today, so thought I would put together some flapjacks, so that he could have one for a snack when he got home. I wanted to make them suitable for my little one too. The result is these delicious little things, which I had to stop myself from nibbling at. I have a few ideas for some different varieties, so watch this space :).
Apricot Flapjacks
Makes 15 mini flapjacks
Ingredients
- 2 cups of old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup of dried apricots
- 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup of fresh pineapple juice (100% stuff)
Directions
Preheat oven to 180c or 350f (gas mark 4)
Place the oats and apricots in a food processor and roughly chop.
Place the butter in a small saucepan and heat until melted then stir in the pineapple juice. Remove from heat.
Add the oats and apricots to the melted butter mix and stir thoroughly.
Line a square tray (I used a 7 3/4″ one) with some baking paper.
Add your oat mixture and press down until you have an even layer in the tray. Score into 15 equal sized rectangles.
Place in the oven and bake for approx 25 mins, until lightly golden. Allow to cool and then you can cut out your flapjacks.
Store these in an air tight container to keep fresh.
NOTE FOR BABY LED WEANING: These are quite chewy, so I would wait until you little one has mastered chewing their food, before offering these.
I bought some commercial baby flapjacks for my baby and she scoffed them down (no doubt partly enticed by the shiny foil wrappers they come in), so I thought I’d make my own using this recipe.
My first attempt wasn’t too successful. I liked the flavour, but it was quite crumbly and dry. My 10 month old baby couldn’t manage it.
I re-made it. This time, I blitzed the first cup of oats in the food processor until they were quite fine – oatmeal texture. Then the second cup I blitzed to a coarser texture and combined the two. I chopped the apricots separately, then added them to the oats. I soaked the oats in the fruit juice for ten mins before adding them to the melted butter to help moisten them. (In retrospect, I’m not sure that the pre-soaking was necessary.)
I also increased the fruit juice to 1/2 cup. This does add to the fruit sugar in the recipe, but it wasn’t too sweet and it helped the texture.
I also chucked in 1/4 cup of almond butter (partly as I thought the oil might help the texture, but partly to add calories to the recipe, as my baby is quite small).
I didn’t have any pineapple juice, so I used the juice I did have (pomegranate).
The flapjacks were less crumbly this time and my baby happily ate them. I like them too. I’m breastfeeding and you’re often recommended to eat oats for your milk and to keep up your energy. It’s good to have a snack to nibble on that isn’t as sugar laden as a traditional flapjack recipe.
UK readers: I used Jumbo Oats.
thanks for your feedback and sharing your version of these. I am sure other will appreciate too.
Hi there, my little one LOVES oat bars so will give these a go this weekend 🙂 Are they freezable? thank you!