Jammy Oat Bars
These jammy oat bars are delicious, a flapjack with a jam layer. A raspberry flapjack is my favourite, with homemade raspberry jam. They obviously are sweet, but maybe not as sweet as the name suggests. I have updated the quantity of sugar in line with current thinking and reduced it by half. They are in the week three meal planner as a breakfast and a cake and bake. Just cut them to the size you like. The silicone cake ‘tin’ I use measures 9″/23cm square and I cut it into 9, making each piece 6p. Cut them to whatever size you like to eat them
130g sr flour 45p/1.5kg, 4p
90g sugar 88p/1kg, 8p
130ml veg oil £1.25/1 litre, 16p
250g oats 75p/kg, 19p
150g jam 30p/450g, 10p
a pinch of salt
Total cost 57p. Cost per piece (9) 6p
Mix everything except the jam together. Grease your tin if not using silicone. Spoon half the mixture into your baking tin and press well down with a spoon. Spread over the jam, Spoon in the remaining half of mix and press well down again.
Bake at 180C/160C fan/gas 4 for 20 minutes
Verdict
Delectable! I love oaty things anyway, and these are very moreish. They feel like eating cake for breakfast, but with all those oats, I’m hoping they’re not too bad!
Variations
You could add vanilla to this mix, or cinnamon, mixed spice or ginger
A layer of dried fruit would work, sultanas, chopped dried apple, dates or figs. I would put the dried fruit in a pan, add a good splash of water, and cook it down to a pulp.
If you have apples or pears from the garden, cook some down to a thick puree and use that
At Christmas time, a layer of mincemeat instead of jam would make a festive bake
If you prefer savoury flavours to sweet ones, all sorts of options would be easy to make too. A good layer of caramelised onions; buttery mashed carrot or parsnip; add sweet chilli sauce or my favourite Pataks aubergine pickle to the oats; or garlic, chilli and ginger; or 2 or 3 tblsps of a Pataks curry paste. How about actual leftover curry in the middle!
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There isn’t much sugar in the oat mix so you could replace it with the appropriate amount of sweetener. If I was going to do that I think I would leave the sugar out altogether and maybe also cut down on the jam, by as much as a half
Can you do this with sweetener instead?
I don’t see why not, they would be more like a flapjack. You could substitute other things for the jam, dates gently cooked with a little water to make a paste, or dried apricots treated the same way, or any of the value dried fruits (raisins, mixed fruit, sultanas)
Unless of course it’s the sweetness the others don’t like, in which case just go for the plain
Have you tried the oaty biscuits (Twinks Hobnobs)? http://www.thriftylesley.com/oaty-biscuits-1p-a-serving/
Would these be ok without the jam? No one in my house really likes jam except me but we all love oaty things (flapjacks etc) Thank you Lesley and keep up the fab work x
Please share your mincemeat muffin recipe. I think I am addicted to mincemeat and have a jar calling my name. 🙂
Mmm, yes, mincemeat would be nice. I made some muffins today using mincemeat, they are delicious and I had to promptly get them in the locked tin out of my way!
At least with individual portions we become aware of having 2nd’s and 3rd’s, even if we end up still having them 😉
Lesley it would be good portion control if it wasn’t so delicious. I fancy making it with mincemeat next. 🙂
the crumbles sound lovely, good portion control too!
I just made these and a sneaky taste tells me they are lovely – I just need to keep away while they cool. I used an 8″ round tin and made 4 individual apple crumbles with the extra mixture. I used my SILs homemade raspberry jam for the oat bars.
For the crumbles I used one small apple in each large ramekin (mine are pottery containers from a ready made shepards pies – meant to be thrown away!), a teaspoon of sugar and then some crumble mix on top. I cooked them along with the bars for the same time.
Thanks for sharing all your lovely recipes.
that’s a good idea. Vegans have to eat such large quantities of food to get their nutrition.
I am trying to tag recipes as vegan or vegetarian. At just £1 a day, lots are turning out vegan as meat, fish, dairy, eggs are all so expensive
What a great recipe! I am going to give this a try adding a few Tbls soya flour instead of the sr flour to boost the protein content for my 4 vegan teenagers.
Ooh, love the idea of apple and blackberry, I’ll have try that one, thanks
Thanks for this recipe, my housemates seem to love them! Here’s my tips/tweaks.
– I use a chopping board to press the oats down to give a nice firm texture, before adding the jam and once the top layer of oats is on.
-Once out of the oven, leave to cool fully before trying to cut up. I leave mine to cool with a chopping board and heavy pot on top to help firm them up.
-Instead of jam, I’ve been chopping up windfall apples, stewing them briefly and using them as jam. With a couple of frozen foraged blackberries chucked in as well its delicious.
Week 4 – can’t wait! Thank you for all your hard work.
I’m so glad you are finding things you like.
Am nearly at the end of planner 3 recipes now, so will start thinking about week 4 and what to put in it soon
they are pretty good. Only trouble I had with them was not scoffing half of them as a ‘snack’ – some snack! But then I do have a sweet tooth. Took one with me for breakfast when I had to leave really early, it worked very well, kept me going until lunchtime.
I’m loving your site, great ideas and I like the amount of detail. I’ve been waiting for this recipe after reading the week 3 plan, will be trying it out tomorrow. Thanks for your hard work in putting all of this together 🙂
Oh i’ll be making these they sound yummy 🙂