Chocolate Cherry Flapjack Crumble Pie

Last week it was pie day (3.14 – well it was in America) and as Simon is a geek and I love baking, it is a day that I definitely enjoy.  This year, to celebrate the day I created a pie which combines one of Simon’s favourite deserts, the crumble, with my beloved flapjacks. I personally love a good flapjack: when eating a flapjack I can almost fool myself that I am eating a healthy snack which means the guilt I feel if (I should say when…) I manage to devour nearly a whole batch of them by myself nearly dissipates.  Nearly, I said nearly – please don’t judge me too harshly, there is still a thought in the back of my mind that I shouldn’t do it, but I can dismiss it with promises to myself that the next batch will be destined for sharing.  The term is ‘altruistic baking’ and I am a firm believer in spreading the calories around to prevent myself from scoffing the lot!

So back to the pie.  It had a chocolate coconut flapjack base, contained stewed cherries (harvested from cherry trees in our neighbourhood last summer) and a coconut crumble topping (before you ask, yes I do like coconut).  The more I think about it though, using a brownie as the filling would have made a truly decadent dessert.  Don’t get me wrong, the cherries were delightful, and did ensure that the pie sort of contained 1 of your 5 a day, but pudding is always better with chocolate! To finish it was covered in a coconut crumble topping.  We ate this pie both warm and cold and it went very well with a serving of ice cream.  The mere memory of the pie is starting to make me hungry…

To make this pie you will need the following ingredients:

Flapjack base

• 150g butter or margarine
• 5tbsp golden syrup
• 3tbsp brown sugar
• 2tbsp cocoa
• 2tbsp desiccated coconut
• 240g oats

For the filling

• Stewed fruit – you could use cherries or raspberries as they go well with the chocolate flapjack.  I think the total volume of stewed fruit I used was around 150 grams.

Crumble topping

• 120g plain flour
• 60g butter/margarine
• 60g caster or demerara sugar
• 4tbsp of desiccated coconut

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºc fan and grease a pie dish.  I used a 23cm loose base fluted non stick pan (gosh what a mouthful).  I greased it using frylight, but butter or margarine would work too and then a small amount of flour.
2. Melt the butter, golden syrup, sugar and cocoa powder over a low heat until dissolved.  Then add the oats and the coconut and mix until fully combined.
3. This should be way more than enough flapjack to spread into your pie dish and all up the sides.  Gently flatten it being careful not to leave any holes.
4. Bake for 20 minutes at 180ºc.  Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn as being a dark flapjack, it is easy to miss.
5. Stew your fruit in 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of water and add sugar to taste.  Make sure it isn’t too runny.
6. Make the crumble topping by rubbing together the butter, sugar, flour and coconut until you have a breadcrumb texture.
7. Remove the flapjack from the oven and place an even layer of the stewed fruit over the flapjack base and then cover with the crumble topping.
8. Return to the oven for 20-25 minutes until the crumble topping is golden.
9. Enjoy hot or cold or even with ice cream!