Iron-rich flapjack recipe

[JellySlice]

I want to try and make iron-rich flapjacks for an anaemic fussy-eater.

He eats red meat, greens, peanut butter and wholemeal bread, but will skip meals if he's in a hurry and won't touch the easy-snacking iron-rich foods like dried apricots, seeds and nuts. So I want to try and bake them into flapjacks that he can just grab-and-go.

Any recipes or suggestions?

Good plan; I was considering this for my veggie daughter.

I usually use the MN Soupdragon’s recipe which contains oats, butter, golden syrup and condensed milk.
How about using black treacle/blackstrap molasses/malt extract instead of the syrup?

finely chopped or puréed dried fruit - raisins, dried apricots, prunes.

pumpkin seeds, ground seed mix and/or a nut butter melted into the mixture.
Very dark chocolate topping would finish it off nicely, adding a little extra iron.

That's the sort of thing. But I've no idea of a recipe. I've never made flapjacks, and I don't want to randomly choose an unknown recipe and tweak it when I don't know how it works.

Is your DS taking an iron supplement? Like Spatone or Floradix? And when he's eating iron rich foods is he having a source of vitamin C with them? That helps absorption
You could try this recipe for flapjacks
thefatfoodie.co.uk/2018/01/07/iron-rich-flapjacks-makes-20/ and you could also try making smoothies - a good way of disguising some of those iron rich foods!

Would he snack on beef jerky? And whilst I know that pepperamis are not exactly healthy, they might be just what he needs!
Cashew and fig bars theflexitarian.co.uk/recipe-items/cashew-fig-bars-vegan-gluten-free/
Lentils are a good source of iron so you could also make these lentil squares www.healthylittlefoodies.com/curried-lentil-bake/

Thanks! (What does it say about MN that I ask here, first, before Googling? )

No supplements yet. The GP wants to do some more tests, and doesn't want to risk supplements distorting results. But she has encouraged ds to increase dietary iron.

This SoupDragon's recipe:

250g porridge oats (the cheap type, not large ones),
150g Butter,
2 generous table spoons Golden Syrup
half a tin condensed milk,
100g demerera sugar
baking tin, no bigger than about 18cm x 28cm

Method: 1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees c

1. Line the baking tin with baking parchment.
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the sugar and syrup. Keep gently heating and stirring until all is melted and mixed. If it starts to boil take it off the heat!
3. Add the condensed milk and mix. Bring to the boil for about a minute.
4. Remove from the heat and gradually add the oats, folding them in. All the oats should be coated, and the mixture quite dense, but still sticky. Don't add so many oats that the mixture becomes dry.
5. Pour the mixture into the tins and spread about so that it lines the tin to a depth of 2-3cm. Don't squash the mixture in, just spread it evenly.
6. Bake in the oven for about 15mins. You should take them out when they just start to go brown round the edges, don't leave longer than this. If they're still squidgy in the middle that's fine, they set on cooking.

She advises use less sugar or even none, as they can turn out very sweet. I went for 30g sugar which I found just right.

I suggest:
(1) add a tablespoon of darker liquid sweeteners I mentioned below
(2) add in a tablespoon of peanut butter to the melted mixture
(3) reduce oats to 200g
(4) add in 50g of chopped dried fruit and/or seeds
(5) dark chocolate drizzle on top

This should preserve the right texture, ie: chewy but not crumbly.
I’ll get round to it when I have a day off!

I've just made a tray of Blondie's recipe. I tweaked it by subbing treacle for about 1/3 of the golden syrup, chopped roast hazelnuts for the pumpkin seeds, and chopped dried apricots for the raisins. All subs because either higher in iron or ds's preferences. I also added 100g of dark chocolate.

But I squashed it down into the tray, not left it loose as per SoupDragon's recipe. Hope that'll be OK.

Smells very good!

I shall try SoupDragon's recipe, too. But not tonight.

Sounds great - how does it taste?

Very nice! Very dark and not very sweet. A bit like a cross between a brownie and a flapjack. I think if I made them for yums rather than as a health food, I would either use milk chocolate or more sweetening (less treacle/more syrup).

Nigella's breakfast bars (can find on her website) have nuts & seeds in - i usually alter the recipe depending what the DC like!

www.nigella.com/recipes/breakfast-bars

Wouldn't the dairy inhibit iron uptake?

Disclaimer: I know very little about this.

Good point, could do - not sure how much by though. The condensed milk is just great at sticking everything together, whilst keeping it chewy. Otherwise you risk crumbly texture if undercooked; brittle if overlooked. No idea if the buttermilk drained off when making butter takes most of the calcium with it??
M&S put condensed milk into their delicious flapjack bites, so happy to take their lead!

I know this was posted a while ago but do you happen to have the recipe for the iron rich flapjacks? I’ve been making them but the website link isn’t working and I didn’t take a note of the ingredients!! 😫