Is it a cookie?  Is it a cake?  Is it a flapjack??  Well I’m not really sure what to call these, but what’s in a name anyhow??   Last Saturday afternoon with my Sister, post Welsh Rugby win (wooooo!), and some time on our hands we decided to do a bit of Sisterly bonding over some baking.  Except we didn’t have any specific recipe in mind to follow and went with a ‘lets see what’s in the cupboards / ready steady cook challenge’ .  Helpfully my Sister is a bit of a baking fanatic so we had plenty of things to choose from – dessicated coconut, ground almonds, blanched almonds, vanilla essence, cinnamon – the list goes on!  With a bit of a helping hand from the shop across the road which contributed the banana and sultanas this recipe was born.  I loosely based it on my Apple and Cinnamon Cookies for the ratio between wet to dry ingredients, choosing to replace the egg with a banana (a tip I have found from vegan websites as my Sis is allergic to eggs).  They went in the oven, with all our fingers crossed and they came out 25 minutes later a cross between a cookie and a flapjack, very coconutty and pleasantly sweet from the banana, apple and sultanas.    Since I’ve been having a bit of an odd flapjack craving lately (word of advice don’t walk into Konditor and Cook .  EVER.)  I’m going to call these a cookie-flapjack  - even if they don’t have any oats, butter or golden syrup in….

Ingredients (makes 18)

• 50g blanched almonds (you could use flaked almonds, or even whole ones)
• 50g ground almonds
• 50g dessicated coconut
• 100g sultanas
• 1 red apple grated (skin on)
• tsp cinnamon
• 1 medium sized banana puréed
• tsp vanilla essence
• Level dessert spoon of olive oil (or melted coconut oil)

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
• If using whole or blanched almonds, blitz them in a food processor or chop up into very small chunks.
• Add the blitzed almonds to a mixing bowl, with the ground almonds, dessicated coconut, sultanas, grated apple (including the skin as it gives a wonderful colour and texture) and cinnamon.  Mix well.
• Blend the banana into a purée and add to the dry mixture along with the vanilla essence and olive oil.  If I had been in my kitchen I probably would have used coconut oil.  The mixture should all come together into a loose dough.
• Use a dessert spoon, to scoop out a just smaller than golf-ball sized amount, and roll into a ball. Place on a baking sheet, along with the 17 other balls.  We used a silicone baking sheet.  If you don’t have one of these then line a standard baking tray with baking paper.  Flatten down each cookie-flapjack a little with the back of a fork.

The flapjack cookies pre-baking.

• Bake in oven at 180 degrees C for 25  mins.  Check them regularly in case your oven behaves differently, especially as the sultanas have a tendency to burn!
• Store in an air-tight container.