flapjack recipes or other recipes using dried fruit?

[bossykate]

i seem to have accumulated a fair amount of dried apricots, dates and sultanas recently. was thinking how nice it would be to have flapjacks with dried fruit and was hoping someone could please provide a recipe?

other recipes welcome - especially for dried apricots (i bought them for ds, but of course he won't touch them, and i picture them still being in the cupboard five years from now!)

thanks in advance

add them to chocolate crispies... either melt chocolate and mix in rice crispies or cornflakes or use 2 oz cocoa, 2oz sugar 2oz butter/margarine and 2tbsp golden syrip....yummy yummy. my flapjacks always fall apart so help too!!

I hate to state the obvious, but a good fruit cake would be a good idea - or how about a christmas cake to put in the freezer?

Am sure Mrs Beeton has recipe for apricot jam using dried apricots. If you're into that sort of thing, let me know and I will post recipe.

Also try a very good internet site called allrecipes.com. It's american, but you can search through an enormous database, and when you've found a recipe, you can get it to convert into metric (but sadly not into Imperial!)

It was recommended by the Sunday Times Internet section a while ago.

Sitting at work with no access to cookery library but how about some lovely fruity mincemeat for pies? If you are on for this, let me know and I will check my Christmas books. We are planning to make our own this year after seeing the mouthwatering selection of dried fruit at Borough Market...

You don't freeze Christmas cake - I thought you put it in the cupboard and feed it brandy!!

Maybe that's just in my house then...

I'm with you Soupdragon, my Christmas cake (made last week) is already in the cupboard being force fed brandy. It keeps for months that way.
bossykate, how about a chocolate biscuit cake? Chop the fruit, chop up some digestive biscuits and stir into some melted chocolate and butter. Pour into a tray and leave to set in the fridge. Am sitting here at work eating some from Konditor & Cook. Naughty I know, but it is raining and my train was cancelled.

come on then - give us the drunken christmas cake recipe... purleese

My recipe for Christmas cake is actually a Guinness cake, but it keeps for about 4 weeks, but'll freeze for about 3 months before hand. Hence the comment about freezing it...

SoupDragon and Bettys - you are SO organised

I did my guiness cake last week..its a somerset stout recipe my mum used. I remember one year we were washing up and my little sister remarked 'mum what are these eggs for???' ...out of the oven came the cake, into the mixer with eggs , back into the tin and into the oven it went...tasted fine!

Ha ha I'm having to be organised as there'll be no kitchen next month, it's being ripped out and replaced.
Willow, I'll happily post the recipe if you want when I get home. It's a Yorkshire recipe about 50 years old at least, and my mother used it to make her wedding cakes. I haven't quite got it right myself yet. To be appreciated at it's best it needs to be eaten with a slice of Wensleydale cheese.

My granny was a yorkshire lass - do you have yorkshire puddings with jam, or did my nutty family invent it. and bossy kate did you see Life Laundry tonight where the lady was throwing out of date tinned food away (I mean like these things were dated 1985!!!!!) . what about rock cakes - great fun for the kids to help make as well.

thanks for all your ideas - they sound great. a fruit/christmas cake sounds a lovely idea - we are hosting christmas at our house this year - so any good recipes would be very welcome.

thanks everyone!

Helenmc, I'm a Yorkshire lass too and have eaten yorkshire puds with golden syrup or jam on. After all they are only pancakes that have been put in the oven and risen. We generally eat them with a roast but If there are any left over I have been known to stick them in the microwave later and eat them with syrup.

This is an easy fruit cake - I substitute chopped dried apricots for the raisins. It's from the Waitrose magazine.

Norfolk Vinegar Cake
225g butter,cubed
450g self-raising flour
225g caster sugar
225g raisins (or chopped dried apricots)
225g sultanas
180ml milk plus 1tbsp
2 tbsp vinegar
1tsp bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.
Liberally butter a deep 23cm cake tin.

Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips to give a crumb-like consistency, or by pulsing in a food processor. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and mix in the sugar and dried fruit.

Put 180ml milk into a large jug or bowl & add the vinegar. Mix the bicarbonate of soda with 1tbsp milk & tip into the milk and vinegar. Hold it over the flour mixture while you do so, because it will froth and may overflow. Stir the liquid into the flour mixture, mix well with a wooden spoon and pour into the cake tin.

Bake for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 150C/gas 2 and bake for a further 1-11/4 hours (check after 1 hour). Lightly cover the top with foil if it is becoming too dark. Cool on a rack and store in an airtight container. Lasts about a week.

thank you, bettys! this will obviously be my first step on the road to becoming a domestic goddess!

thanks again.

hi bettys.

thanks again for the recipe, i'm planning to give it a go on sunday. as you know, i'm far from being a baking expert, but i couldn't help noticing that there are no eggs in this cake - can that be right? i have heard of flourless cakes, but, so far, never eggless! but of course that could just be my ignorance...

sorry to presume on your good nature again, but would you mind confirming that there are definitely no eggs needed for this?

thank you so much.

doesn't the vinegar react with the bicarb to produce bubbles?? plus there's a raising agent in the flour.

helenmc, my ignorance is such that i'm afraid i don't understand how your comments relate to the lack of eggs? would eggs normally act as a raising agent? you seem to be suggesting that the bubbles and the raising agent in the flour mean there is no need for eggs. apologies if i have misunderstood.

Hiya Bossykate - no I didn't explain myself, i was having a sneaky look at mumsnet on a very quiet friday afternoon at work!!! Ages ago there was a really good tv programme about the science of cooking and it said thee lightness in things are caused by beating air into things like air into eggs and also by chemical reactions, like the vingear) mixied with bicarb and makes gas. And let's us know how you get one with the cake...hello techies is there a mumsnet recipe book ???

Oooops only just seen your question, bossykate. There are no eggs in this cake, it doesn't need it as the flour is self-raising. Have you tried it yet?

How's about baked apples? Core some Bramleys or other apple, stuff full of dried fruit and something sweet and sticky (sugar? syrup? honey?jam? molasses?) put on baking dish with a slosh of apple juice and bake in a low-medium oven till soft. Add yoghurt, custard or icecream and serve. My dd and dp loathe it but it means all the more for MEEEEE!

bettys, thanks for getting back to me. unfortunately the time i had earmarked for making the cake coincided with the mumsnet server being down - so i had to find another recipe! it turned out fine - although a harsh critic might say it was a tad dry. will try your recipe next time.

cha - funnily enough i had been thinking of doing a few baked apples. not a huge fan myself, but anything to tempt ds's appetite.

thank you, ladies