Pumpkin Spice Flapjacks

The Earth Heart Kitchen has been pretty productive over the spring into summer months but it’s been lovely to slow down a little at the arrival of autumn and have an opportunity for a bit more rest before the next busy season at the end of the year. It’s true, I have already made a batch of mincemeat but I’m very much enjoying the gentle shift of the season as we approach Samhain and the darker months. It’s a real season of reward; so much work has been done, so much energy spent in generating outcomes, yet here we arrive at a time of stillness whilst still benefitting from the abundant fruits of those efforts. We posted about Apple Day back in August (it came really early this year!) and I still had homemade apple spread on my toast this morning. As I write, Nik is preparing the spare demijohn for the job of racking off the cider and on this rather soft and gentle drizzly day, we’ll be enjoying my latest seasonal creation for a teatime treat; Pumpkin Spice Flapjacks!

This time last year, I made mini ‘pumpkin’ pies with our homegrown squash. They were really tasty and we enjoyed them very much… but they were quite a lot of work (filling all the mini pie cases carefully with pastry, blind baking, making the filling, pressing out all the little lids) and actually they weren’t great sellers. Maybe pumpkin pie is just a little too exotic for a Welsh valley?!

I especially enjoy cooking with our own garden produce so this year, I really wanted to do something sweet with pumpkin again but there didn’t seem much point in going to a lot of effort for mini pumpkin pies for a second year. Flapjack is my go to baked treat which is endlessly variable and flexibly responsive to seasonal availability, however; and so it wasn’t a great leap to conceive the Pumpkin Spice Flapjack. As far as I’m concerned, I invented it. A quick online search will demonstrate that I’m not the first person to have invented it and there are a few different recipes out there, which you are of course welcome to investigate. This is my version though, I hope you enjoy both the baking and the eating!

---

Pumpkin Spice FLapjacks

---

Ingredients:

For the Flapjack:

• 150g Plant Butter (I use Flora)
• 100g Organic Coconut Oil
• 200g Demerara Sugar
• 25g Golden Caster Sugar
• 1 Pinch of Sea Salt
• 375g Porridge Oats​

For the Filling:

• One Small Squash/Pumpkin (about the size of a medium grapefruit)
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
• 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg (less if grating fresh)
• 1 Pinch Ground Cloves
• 1 Teaspoon Dark Maple Syrup

Method:

1. Start by roasting the squash. Slice it in half and scoop out the seeds (set them aside if you’d like to grow some more!) before placing it in a hot oven (200/220°f) for half an hour or so, until the flesh is soft and easily penetrated with a knife. You don’t need to use oil. Let it cool fully before scooping the flesh out with a spoon. (Depending upon the fruit, I’d highly recommend reserving the skins to be stuffed and re roasted, delicious!)
2. Blend the pumpkin flesh, maple syrup and ground spices well, you can do that effectively enough by hand with a fork, and then set it aside. I like to make mine the day before and refrigerate it over night, which I think helps the flavours develop and the flesh thicken up a bit. You don’t have to do that though.
3. When you’re ready to make the flapjack, begin by greasing and lining a baking tray (ideally with sides). Slowly melt the plant butter and coconut oil together in a saucepan on a low heat. Stir in the sugar and then the oats. Let it cook off a little, but not much and keep it moving all the time so the oats don’t stick and burn at the bottom.
4. Transfer roughly half the oat mixture into the bottom of the tin and press it all down well with the back of a spoon or a small spatula so it’s compacted as much as possible. Gently spread the pumpkin filling on to the top, as if you’re buttering the bottom half of a sandwich. There’s a bit of a knack to doing this with a kind of downwards motion followed by a  gentle rolling out to the sides and corners, which can help stop the oats getting all mixed in to the pumpkin. Having said that, it really doesn’t matter if it gets all mixed in. You could probably mix the whole lot all together before putting it in to the tin in one go if you wanted to… I quite like the ‘sandwich’ method though.
5. If you’re following me with that method, pat the pumpkin layer down evenly before gently scattering the remaining oats over the surface. Press them down firmly as with the first layer; you may find a bit of pumpkin oozes through or out the side. That’s fine!
6. Place the tin in a pre-heated oven to roughly 180°c. If you’ve got a fan oven, it may be quicker but I tend to leave mine in for 30 to 40 minutes. It might even take a little longer, especially if you’re anything like Nik and you like your flapjacks with crusty burnt bits!
7. Now, I like to plan ahead when I bake, so I would recommend letting the whole tin cool completely and then refrigerating it overnight before slicing it. In my experience, this makes it much easier to slice nice, neat square (or oblong!) pieces. If you’re feeling less patient, of course you could do it sooner, but definitely let it cool enough to not burn yourself and be prepared for a bit more crumbling! I say this makes 12 flapjacks… you might like yours bigger or smaller.

---

Next time I make this, I’ll be sure to have some pumpkin seeds in stock as I think they’d make a lovely topping, scattered onto the surface before baking, possibly even with a maple syrup glaze. I didn’t have any this time though and so I’d say that’s an entirely optional extra! However you make it, we hope you enjoy this little autumnal treat as much as we did!

Incidentally, the last recipe I posted back in February, Squash and Celeriac Soup, also used our homegrown squash, the fabulous Uchiki Kuri. If you fancy something a little more savoury, check it out! Xx