Happy Easter weekend! and happy long bank holiday weekend. I know this isn’t how many of us imagined we would be spending this weekend, but it is more important than ever that we stay at home and support our NHS. Baking is a great way to spend the time, reduce anxiety and make some yummy treats for yourself/ your household and these flapjack nests are great as they’re Easter themed and don’t need eggs or flour, which are currently in short supply.
The main recipe for the flapjacks follows my 5 ingredient flapjack recipe with an added chocolate hit. This one is simple to follow, and difficult to mess up, but needs a little more time as you have to let the flapjacks cool, perfect for a weekend baking day.
What you’ll need:
To make ~6 nests you’ll need:
200g oats
90g butter, margarine, vitalite
I used 30g brown sugar, but if you like things sweeter use more
Sticky Stuff: 2 spoons of golden syrup, honey or maple syrup (I used golden syrup in these, I’ve used honey before and it works just as well, and when I say spoon i mean the regular kind of spoon that comes with a cutlery set)
A handful of dried fruit if you have it- although this isn’t a necessity, the recipe works just as well without
Chocolate- can be dark or milk, whatever you’ve got. I used an orange twirl because we have plenty
Mini eggs or similar
A bowl for mixing, two spoons, a baking tray designed for muffins/cupcakes, a heatproof bowl for melting the chocolate, a saucepan if you’re melting the chocolate on the hob.
What to do:
WASH YOUR HANDS and preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius
To make the flapjacks follow the method on my 5 ingredient flapjack recipe
Once the flapjack mix is made grease a muffin tray, for this I used a coconut oil spray but you could use melted butter or similar.
Divide the mix into the individual muffin wells and using a spoon (or your WASHED hands) mould the mixture into the ‘nest’ shape. You basically want the bottom and the sides coated, a bit like a bowl. At this stage don’t panic if the mixture feels a bit crumbly (and the fruit doesn’t make this easy!) firm into the shape you want and pop into the oven.
Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for approximately 25 minutes until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let the nests cool in the tray- don’t take them out of the tray whilst it is hot as the nests are still a little crumbly.
When the tray is cool give each nest a twist to loosen, then turn the tray upside down and let the nests gently fall into paper towel. If any are stuck, give them another twist and repeat the process. They aren’t as delicate if they look, but at the same time don’t be too rough.
Leave to cool for 1 hour.
Once cool, you’re ready to add the chocolate to the base of the nest.
The ‘correct’ and largely suggested way to melt chocolate is on the hob using a heatproof bowl which sits on top of a pan of boiling water. Continuously stir the mix until all chocolate is melted and smooth. The cheat’s way of melting the chocolate is using the microwave (and this is what I did!). Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl for thirty seconds (be careful the bowl will get hot, use oven gloves) then remove and stir. Let the chocolate touch the sides of the warm bowl as your stir as this will help it to melt quicker. Pop back in the microwave for another 30 seconds and repeat. I found I only needed to do this twice.
Once the chocolate is melted spoon it into the bottom of each nest and spread evenly, then decorate with the chocolate eggs.
Leave the chocolate to cool- DO NOT put in the fridge as this makes the flapjacks go a bit hard.
Once the chocolate has set ENJOY!
If you make these I’d love to hear how you get on. Some other recipes you might enjoy:
No egg, no flour oat, raisin and dark chocolate cookies
This Bunny Runs 