The Curious Case of the Toddler and the Flap Jacks!!

So Easter has once more come and gone and we still have heaps of chocolate to get through! My eldest loves dark chocolate so i managed to persuade him to part with half a bar to jazz up our usual flapjack recipe, in fact not much persuasion was required as he loves flapjacks as does the three year old who insists on calling them Jack Blacks! 

We were having a very calm day last Tuesday, plenty of playing and not much fighting, its usually the other way around so i decided to spend a quiet hour in the kitchen baking while the baby was sleeping.  Dinner was on, flapjacks in the oven and i was even having a lovely cup of fresh coffee when i heard the crying and then toddler appeared with blood streaming down his face!!!  Sods blooming law, knew the day had been going too well!  Quick tweet with picture of injury to @21stsafety (benefits of being friends with a paramedic!) brought the conclusion that a hospital visit was in order.  Toddler and I headed to Mullingar A & E where after five hours of waiting he was glued and paper stitched almost back to new.  I am thinking of hiring him out to hospital waiting rooms for a fee as he managed to keep entire waiting room amused while we were waiting and he also managed to eat his way through a bag of fruit and two "black jacks" which reassured me that his injury was minor!

Anyway back to the flapjack recipe, could not be easier! Comes from an old Odlums cookbook which am sure was held in the same regard as the bible in most of our homes growing up!

Ingredients

• 6oz porridge oatflakes
• 20z light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 3oz butter
• Melted dark choc (optional)

Place the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan and stir till butter has melted.
Add the porridge and stir to combine.
Transfer to a brownie tin which is well greased.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Mark into fingers while warm.
Allow to become cold in tin before removing.
Drizzle melted chocolate over the top.

Ta da, black jacks!

What can be more chocolatey than a #chocalong??

I adore chocolate, dark, milk, white, flavoured, chunky or smooth, it doesn't matter! When I read about the chocalong I thought, what a great excuse to combine two of my favourite things, baking and chocolate!! Continuing my fascination with all things tarty (no smart comments please!) I decided to do a Chocolate and Raspberry Tart, full of delicious high fat ingredients but i tend to focus on the high antioxidant levels of the dark chocolate, sure its practically a health food. :-)

Chocolate and Raspberry Tart

1/2 a quantity of Jamie Olivers sweet shortcrust pastry (see Sweet Tooth post for recipe)

Filling

250g good dark chocolate
250ml cream, whipped
250g mascarpone cheese
2 egg whites, whipped till standing in peaks
Punnet of raspberries

• Line a tart tin with the pastry and cook blind for 20 minutes or until golden.
• Melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over boiling water then take off heat.
• Add cream and mascarpone and mix well before folding in egg whites.
• Pour chocolate mixture into cooled pastry case and arrange raspberries on top!
• Allow to set in fridge before slicing and serving with cream. Enjoy!!

At long last, a chance to write!!

Its been a month since i have had any time to write up a new post and for the next 90 minutes hubby dear is glued to the soccer so I don't feel obliged to have to make conversation!  Am now back in the land of the working mum and time is slipping away from me!! Am luckier than most though, have an evening job which only requires me for 20 hours a week and allows me to stay home with the kids during the day till hubby comes home to take over.  The working bit is definitely the easy bit, its hard going juggling a seven month old baby, an active three year old and a socialite eight year old!  Some evenings I await the arrival of my hubby home with the nervous excitement of our first dates but alas it is merely excitement that i am getting to leave the house and enter the world of adult conversation for a few hours!!  I work in one of the better known English supermarkets as a team leader, which basically means i do a little bit of everything and run around like a maniac trying to keep everyone pleased.  In a previous life I have worked as a property negotiator (back in the days when people actually bought houses) and an accounts assistant (when people actually had some money to worry about)! I never thought I would end up in the land of retail but lo and behold here I am and as happy as Larry, whoever he may be. I find it fascinating to watch people going about their daily business and have had some priceless moments with customers which i will bore you with along the way.  Thanks for reading and watch out for some more blogs tonight to include #chocalong and if I have the energy Tiramisu!