Low fat flapjack made with porridge.

ncmc

I am trying to eat a little healthier, but I find biscuits and pastries are my downfall. The more I try and stay off them, the more I crave them! I remember seeing a recipe (may have been on Operation Transformation or similar program) for a low fat flapjack made with porridge and.... there's my problem, can't remember what was in it. But it was def very low in calories and I thought it might curb my biccie cravings more than fruit/yoghurt/nuts etc. Can anyone suggest a healthy flapjack recipe? Anything I've seen on the net seems to be pretty high in calories. Thanks in advance.

sillysasauge

These are lovely little fellas, i just made a batch now, i love em can't recommend them highly enough, they are made with olive oil instead of butter. i only use haf the sugar it says on the recipe.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/magazine/2009/0314/1224242556081.html

ncmc

Thanks for that sillysausage, I actually just saw you post that link on another thread, but it seems to require a subscription to view it. Any chance you could copy and paste? Thanks!

sillysasauge

ncmc wrote: »

Thanks for that sillysausage, I actually just saw you post that link on another thread, but it seems to require a subscription to view it. Any chance you could copy and paste? Thanks!

Hey, that website is silly, sometimes it says it needs a subscription and sometimes it doesnt, maybe keep refreshing.
Here is the recipe

With this in mind, I have a really good recipe for granola bars that are made with olive oil instead of butter and are wheat-free, for coeliacs, who are often neglected. The other recipe is for scones. Mary, our super head chef in Cork, who has just had a baby boy, will have me shot if I publish her carefully guarded scone recipe, so here’s a safe alternative.

Granola bars

Don’t worry if you have to substitute one type of nut for another. You can also change the dried fruit.

45g pecan nuts

45g dried apricots, finely chopped

100g figs, finely chopped

45g dried sour cherries (or cranberries)

45g pumpkin seeds

30g sesame seeds

30g ground almonds

200g oats

a good pinch of cinnamon

100ml olive oil

4 tbsp honey

75g demerara sugar

Preheat an oven to 140 degrees/gas mark one. Lightly toast the pecan nuts for five to 10 minutes on a baking tray in the oven. Soak the apricots, figs and cherries in a small amount of boiling water for five minutes, then drain. Roughly chop the pecan nuts and then mix with all the other nuts, cinnamon and chopped fruit.

Heat the olive oil, honey and sugar in a small saucepan till the sugar dissolves, then mix with the fruit and nuts. Mix well and then line a tin with parchment paper (mine is a rectangular tin that measures 20cm in length). Using a wet spatula, pack the granola mix into the tin and smooth the top. Keep dipping the spatula into some water as this helps smooth it down without sticking. Bake for 25 minutes or until it is starting to go golden brown. Allow to cool fully, then remove from the tin and cut into bars. Wrap well in cling film and freeze, or keep in the fridge.

Dotcomdolly

If you buy a 2.5kg bag of porridge you could use it as weights

Amazing to see a healthy recipe by Domini Kemp, she is the queen of naughty recipes!
Do you think they would make a good post-run snack?

columok

I would recommend that you make a high fat flapjack but using nuts/coconut oil as the fat content. This will make the flapjacks heavier and more filling!

Khannie

Flapjacks are high calorie foods unfortunately. I have tried making them about 30 different ways and the best thing to reduce in them (IMO) is the sugar content. You can replace it (to some extent at least) with sweetener or dried fruit.

Butter is probably better to use because it's solid at room temperature. Any attempts at using vegetable oil that I have made have ended in total disaster. - either by not binding (sunflower oil), or tasting like flippin' muck (olive oil).

I have also used whey as a binding agent. This is tough enough to do though because whey and butter don't mix well together. You could probably use egg instead of whey there. Also, when baked, it can result in a slightly more cake-like than biscuit-like flapjack. Let me know if you want more detail here and I'll add it.

edit: If you do use whey, the flapjack is nearly a complete meal though. Healthy fats, good carbs and protein. In this way you can have it with your tea / coffee and just eat less other stuff.

Mellor

Dotcomdolly wrote: »

Amazing to see a healthy recipe by Domini Kemp, she is the queen of naughty recipes!
Do you think they would make a good post-run snack?

Healthy is a vague term.
They are made up of good ingredients, but its the quantity that an issue. Would be very easy to over eat if you made these a lot.
They certainly aren't low fat with the oil, and nuts and seed. Dried fruit is also very high in sugar.

rubadub

Khannie wrote: »

Butter is probably better to use because it's solid at room temperature.

Coconut oil should work so, it is solid at room temp. I would also like the coconut taste in them and coconut oil is said to act sort of like a carb rather than a fat so should give energy. I have read many sites recommending 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and I have read of people just eating it straight or drinking with water or coffee. I love my greasy food so see that as a waste! I fry with plenty of it, then make a scrambled egg in the pan if any oil is left, as it is pricey stuff.

Khannie wrote: »

I have also used whey as a binding agent. This is tough enough to do though because whey and butter don't mix well together.

You might try mixing the whey with the oats when they are still dry. I have strawberry flavouring and if I add it to milk it is hard to stir in, so I add it dry to my oats and mix it around, it covers them very evenly so when I add milk it is all evenly mixed. I had added whey to oats in the same way and found it mixed easier with the milk, really work it into the dry oats. Though if you are adding a lot of whey it might not work so well.

columok

rubadub wrote:

Coconut oil should work so, it is solid at room temp. I would also like the coconut taste in them and coconut oil is said to act sort of like a carb rather than a fat so should give energy. I have read many sites recommending 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and I have read of people just eating it straight or drinking with water or coffee. I love my greasy food so see that as a waste! I fry with plenty of it, then make a scrambled egg in the pan if any oil is left, as it is pricey stuff.

I usually use (based on Crossfit Tony's original recipe) a 50/50 mix of almond butter and coconut oil. For say 500-600g of mix you need easily 8 tablespoons of this mix.

FYI coconut oil is EUR2.30 or so for 500ml in the asian market on mary street!!! The bottles (250ml) are just over a euro but painful to use as you have to leave the bottle in hot water!