Honestly, Dimples may have turned five but she is a determined and stubborn as any four year old. Or three year old. Or two year old.
Thus the flapjacks with hidden banana, which had been lovingly dosed with chocolate chips as an incentive to eat, were quickly rebranded Monkey Bars to encourage eating. She’s studying jungle animals at school this term so it was a convenient choice.
It worked too. She hoovered them up and has asked for another batch.
The recipe is based on the Percy Road Flapjacks featured in Secrets of Aga Cakes by Lucy Young, with a few alterations to the ingredients.
For a tray of Monkey Bars (it honestly depends how you slice them as to how many you’ll get) I use:
100g butter
75g light brown sugar
100g Golden Syrup
190g porridge oats
35g flaked coconut (though you can use desiccated)
50g chocolate chips/chunks
2 overripe bananas, mashed.
As with all flapjacks, you melt the melty stuff and mix it with the other stuff, then pour it in to a greased tin and bake until crispy round the edges.
The key thing you need to beware of is the chocolate chips or chunks. They will melt when you add the wet ingredients to the dry so be sure to stir those through the mix last of all before you pour the mixture into the tin.
Cool, cut and feed to your monkeys.
Go on! You know you want to tell me what you think!