Vegan Christmas Flapjacks | Blogmas 2016

Try this 100% vegan Christmas treat, Christmas cake inspired flapjacks. A great treat to make for a party, both vegan & non-vegan friends of mine loved these! Have a go yourself!

Ingredients

For the Flapjacks
200g Pure Sunflower Spread 200g Demerara Sugar

200g Golden Syrup

400g Porridge Oats

70g dried fruit
2 drops Lemon zest
Pinch of cinnamon

For the Topping:
Ready to roll marzipan or icing sugar
Apricot jam
Red food colouring*
Green food colouring*
Icing Sugar
1 Small fine-tipped and 1 small flat paintbrushes
Toothpicks
A pair of rubber gloves
*Make sure it is suitable for vegans, I bought Sainsbury's own brand food colouring.

Preheat oven 180ºc

Line baking tin with baking paper and grease with the Pure spread

Put the Pure Sunflower spread, Demerara sugar and Golden Syrup in a saucepan on a medium heat (so nothing burns), stir occasionally. The butter should melt and the sugar should dissolve.

Add the Porridge Oats mixed fruit gradually with the lemon and cinnamon to the saucepan mixture, fold and stir together using a wooden spoon to mix it well.

Spoon the mixture into the baking tin, spreading it evenly with the wooden, not forgetting to fill the corners and up to the edges. A wooden spatula will help even out the mixture in the tin.

Place in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes to bake, until lightly golden in colour at the edges but soft in the centre.

Once ready, remove from the oven and leave to cool. This will allow time to prep the marzipan topping.

The Topping

Lightly dust the work surface with icing sugar, roll out the marzipan to approximately the area of the flapjack with a thickness of about 2mm.

Apply a thin layer of apricot jam to the top of the flapjack and then place the marzipan on top, cutting off any excess around the edges.

Now we're ready to cut the large flapjack into smaller even squares, 12 to be precise. 4 lengthways and 3 width ways.

 It's time to add the finishing touches to each individual flapjack, holly and berries using the remaining marzipan which may need to be rolled out to approximately 1mm in thickness

Using your hands create 24 pea sized balls for the berries (2 per flapjack) and with the toothpick carve out long rectangles and roll them into sausage-like shapes, then flatten them creating leave-like shapes.

Pour a small amount of each of the food colouring into a separate small glass or ceramic dish and assign a paintbrush for each. Now wearing your rubber gloves take each "berry" and paint them red. This tutorial helped me out a lot! Have lots of kitchen towel to hand, this can get messy and stain, eek!

On the middle of each flapjack, dab a small amount of apricot jam, to allow the holly and berries to stick to the marzipan. With a  toothpick place 2 "berries" in the middle of each flapjack square (if needed use a second toothpick to help remove it from the 1st toothpick)

Then place the unpainted marzipan "leaves" with one pointed end placed on top of the flapjack where the "berries" meet, one on either side. Take a small amount of green colouring on the flat brush and paint the top of the "leaves". All is needed is a dusting of icing sugar to add the finishing touch. :)

And there you have it Christmassy 100% vegan flapjacks!

Other Blogmas 2016 Posts:

What to expect this #Blogmas 2016

Xmas Tech Under £100 Gift Guide

Christmas Vanilla & Cinnamon Shortbread

More Food Recipes:

Scrumptious Chocolate & Walnut Tart
Delicious Nutty Pumpkin Pie