Drying fruit and an experiment with fat-free, sugar-free flapjacks

Every year sees the dawning of a new healthy eating regime.  Aim to start well and go downhill from there is my philosophy and this year has been no exception! 

I decided to start the new year with an inspired purchase of a food dehydrator.  A little gift to myself, if you will!

I have read about these food dehydrators a lot.  The idea is that you can place all sorts of fruit and veg into it and it turns it into a range of banana chips, sundried tomatoes, dried apple rings etc!  What’s not to like about that?

I splashed out and made the purchase from Lakeland and to be honest, the thing has barely been turned off.  It’s amazing!  I have never been a fan of over ripe fruit and this has totally come to the rescue.  I’m still a bit baffled about what to do with vegetables but I’m not one to give up!

As part of my experimentation, I decided to tackle a fat-free, sugar-free flapjack.  I thought of this as the dried fruit has a really intense sweetness which is quite remarkable!

What I used was as follows:

2 apples (sliced)

100g porridge oats

Juice and rind of a lemon

1 tbsp water

A mixture of the dehydrated fruit (you can use any dried fruit)

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

Instructions

Stew the apples with the water, lemon rind and juice until broken down

Stir in all the other ingredients and mix well

Press into a baking tray and bake in the oven at 175 c for about 25 mins or until golden

Allow to cool and cut into squares

I hope you enjoy!!!

The food dehydrator in action!

I had to stop myself eating these like sweets and save some for the flapjacks!