Oaty date slices

These are brilliant for lunchboxes, and vanish faster than a particularly fast thing. I found the recipe in Olive's July issue, and tweaked it a little bit.

You'll need:

100g porridge oats
100g self-raising flour
100g butter
50 soft brown sugar
200g stoned dates, chopped
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

Sling the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and fish out an 18-20cm square baking tin. Line it with greaseproof paper.

Mix the oats and flour together, and tip into a food processor. Add the butter, and pulse until it's all well mixed (you could rub this in by hand, but this is far quicker). Add the sugar, and pulse again until you get a crumbly mix - tip it out of the food processor and into a bowl.

Pour the lemon juice and chopped dates into the food processor (don't bother cleaning it out from the crumble mix, it'll be fine), and blitz until you get a thick, jam-like consistency. You might need to add a little extra water to make it easier to spread.

Press half the crumble mix into the bottom of your tin. Spread over the date jam. Top with the remaining crumble mix, and press down firmly.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, until it's golden brown. Cut into small squares while it's in the tin, and then leave to cool (still in the tin). Once it's cold, you can lift the whole lot out using the greaseproof paper.

Oaty cherry biscuits

I was going to take a photo of these, but you and your Dad ate them so fast that there were none left. I think they've joined his list of favourite biscuits (although Anzac biscuits may still be top of the heap).

You'll need:

125g butter
25g caster sugar
50g light muscovado sugar
75g self-raising flour
112g porridge oats
100g glace cherries, chopped
25g raisins

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C. You'll need a baking tray, and a silicon sheet or some greaseproof paper - these will stick horribly otherwise.

Beat the butter and sugar (both kinds) together until they look fluffy. Stir in the flour and oats, and mix everything really well. Don't worry about the fact there's no liquid - it all comes together remarkably well (it's probably the appalling amount of butter involved).

Tip in the cherries and raisins, and stir until they're evenly spread throughout the mixture.

Divide the mix into lots of little balls (about as big as a ping-pong ball). Sling them on a tray (reasonably well spread out, as the mix does spread a little), and then flatten each ball with your fingers.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the biscuits have turned golden brown round the edges - you still want them a little squidgy in the centre.

Cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, and then sling them on a wire rack to cool down properly. They go beautifully with a nice cup of coffee at about 10.30am.

Cakey flapjacks

Don't get me wrong - they're still pretty solid - but these are slightly more cakey than your average flapjack.

Makes lots (at least 16). You'll need:

175g light brown sugar
150g butter
3 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarb of soda
200g plain flour
200g oats
a good handful of raisins

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and line a tray/dish with greaseproof paper. The size of the dish will depend on how deep you want your flapjack to be - you could even do this on a baking tray.

Sling the butter, sugar, golden syrup and bicarb in a saucepan, and put on a low heat. They'll melt and look an unholy mess - give it a good stir, and don't worry about it. Add the flour, oats and raisins, and stir until well mixed.

Tip into your dish/tray, level it all out, and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until it's turned golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin - but do remember to divide it into slices, as it's pretty solid once it's cooled down.

Fruity flapjack pots

This was rather slung together, to make a quick pudding for Gran and Grandpa (lover of puddings extraordinaire). You could use any sort of sour fruit - rhubarb, gooseberries, redcurrants - as long as you balance it with a little apple.

You'll need:

4 small oven-proof ramekin dishes (those glass ones that Gu puds come in are ideal)
a selection of fruit (ours included three or four stems of rhubarb from the allotment, a couple of gooseberries, half an apple that was leftover from your lunch and a banana)
2 heaped teaspoons of golden syrup (honey would also be nice)
25g butter (ish)
6 or 7 tablespoons rolled oats

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

Chop up the rhubarb, gooseberries and apple (peeled and cored), and chuck into a small pan. Add a little hot water, bring to the boil, and simmer for 10 minutes, until the fruit has broken down. Spread this mixture at the bottom of your ramekins. I didn't have a huge amount (there wasn't much rhubarb available), so I sliced up a banana as well, and divvied it up among the ramekins.

Melt the butter and golden syrup in a non-stick pan. Add the rolled oats, and stir - you want the oats to become completely covered in the butter/syrup mixture. If it's a bit dry, add a little more butter.

Spoon the oaty mixture onto the top of the fruit, and then stand the ramekins on a baking tray (it makes them easier to get in and out of the oven). Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the flapjack-y top has gone crispy, and the fruit is bubbling underneath.

We ate this with a little cream drizzled on the top (ice cream would also be good).

Sunshine bars

I adapted this one from the brilliant Good Food 101 Cakes and Bakes. It's designed to feed a horde of toddlers, who are descending on us tomorrow afternoon. God help us.

You'll need:

4oz porridge oats
20z rice krispies (that's actually quite a lot of rice krispies...)
3oz dessicated coconut
2oz sunflower seeds
4oz brown sugar
4oz golden syrup
4oz butter, chopped
2oz raisins/sultanas
2oz dried dates and prunes, chopped

Chuck the oats, rice krispies and coconut in a bowl, and get small biddable child to mix well. Add the raisins/sultanas/dates/prunes, checking that most have gone in the bowl rather than the small child.

Toast the sunflower seeds in a dry frying pan for a couple of minutes until they brown, and then chuck them in too.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup. Pour this over the dry ingredients, and mix really really well. Line a shallow tin with greaseproof paper, and tip the mixture into it. Press down hard with a spoon, to compact everything. Once finished, let small child lick the spoon.

Leave to cool for a couple of hours, and then divide into bars. It should keep in a tin for a week or so, I guess.