Tramper’s Oat Slice

Don’t ask me why this recipe, which I found sandwiched between a few hundred pages of one of my Mum’s recipes books, is called Tramper’s Oat Slice. I suppose it is a bit like a homemade energy bar…maybe that’s why.

From the look of it, it was probably a recipe found in the Dominion Post a couple of years ago, and it has become a favourite in our household.  The blurb before the recipe says that the recipe was developed by Deb Baxter who owned a cafe in Blenheim. It’s a real sort of muesli, health bar and is quite tasty, and nutritious!

The addition of lemon juice and lemon rind really adds to the slice and gives it a great tangy flavour that comes through the oats and seeds. You can add as much dried fruit as you like – things like chopped apricots work well, alongside sultanas. This is the kind of slice that you can mix up, and change depending on what you might have lingering your pantry cupboard. Enjoy!

Tramper’s Oat Slice
Makes 40

• 125 g butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup sultanas
• 1/2 cup apricots, chopped
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp lemon zest, finely grated

Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees. Grease a sponge roll tin with a small amount of spray, and line with baking paper.

Place the butter in a bowl, add sugar, golden syrup. Beat until pale and creamy. Add the egg and beat until well combined.

Add flour, baking powder, coconut, rolled oats, sultanas, apricots, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat until well combined.

Place in tin, and press down. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Slice up when the slice has cooled down a bit and store in an air tight container.

Caramel Oat Cake

I often make this cake (err, slice?) and I have wanted to add it to the blog for a good while. Do you know what the funny thing is? I always forget to take a picture before it disappears fairly quickly. Damn.

Well this time I did, so here it is in all it’s glory. This recipe comes from Jo Seagar’s cookbook called The Cook School Recipes. When I first purchased this book, I had every intention of regularly choosing a new recipe and trying it out. But like all my other cookbooks…it took a place on the shelf and I resorted to my laptop and the power of google! Does anyone else do that? I must make more of an effort to make things from an actual recipe book!

The combination of the caramel, rolled oats and wholemeal flour is just so delicious and tastes remarkably healthy! Even though, let’s face it, it’s totally NOT. But hey! We’re all allowed to indulge once in a while! Happy Thursday. Yay, nearly the weekend! Enjoy.

Caramel Oat Cake

• 1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
• 3/4 cup white flour
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup desiccated coconut
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 250 grams butter
• 2 eggs
• Vanilla

For the caramel:

• 400ml sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tbsps golden syrup
• 150 grams butter

Make the caramel by combining the butter, condensed milk, golden syrup in a small pot over a medium heat. Mix until well combined and make sure the caramel has thickened slightly and turned a golden brown. I put the pot straight into the fridge so it thickened a bit more. It seemed to hold itself together more in the oven rather than oozing into the base.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In a smaller bowl mix melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients. Press 3/4 of the mixture into a slice pan and pour the caramel on top. Crumble the remaining mixture over the top. Bake at 180 degrees for about 40-45 minutes or until golden.

When the slice has cooled, drizzle with chocolate!

I’ve decided to enter this delicious recipe into Sweet New Zealand for March 2014! Check out all the fantastic recipes over at Bake Club at the end of the month!

Crunchy Caramel Cookies

Well, I’m lost for words. I can’t really think what to write about this recipe for Caramel Oat Biscuits. They simply could not be easier to make let alone pretty super duper healthy. A good idea of something to make after that pre-Christmas binge that goes on with junk food and other sweet treats!

The recipe makes about 50 small biscuits or about 20-ish regular sized ones. Something I like about them is that they’re not overly sweet! Made from a combination of plain and wholemeal flour…one small biscuit certainly fills that hunger gap. They follow a slightly different process (quite American I believe!) which actually makes it really easy to make in smaller batches, if needed. Definitely recommend!

These biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Try adding a little ground cinnamon to the biscuit dough if you like a bit of spice. I was thinking after these had been cooked, adding a few currants, raisins or sultanas…any dried fruit for that matter, would be a really nice addition! Enjoy.

Crunchy Caramel Cookies

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 1/2 a teaspoon baking soda
• 76 grams of butter

Preheat oven to 200°C. Set aside 2 non-stick baking trays. In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla using an electric mixer. Add remaining ingredients and beat thoroughly. You may need to add 1-2 tbs iced water if mixture is too dry.

Scrape dough out of bowl and onto a large piece of plastic. Roll dough into a log, approximately 4cm wide. Completely wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, for at least 60 minutes, or overnight.

Cut dough into 3mm thin slices and arrange on baking trays well apart. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until lightly browned around edges and biscuits are firm to the touch.

Allow cookies to cool on trays then remove using a spatula to a cake rack to cool completely.