Peanut butter almond flapjacks- vegan, natural sugar

Xylitol and date syrup are used to sweeten these oat cookies. this is part of Radhika's Let's Cook event

"You know, you can make flapjacks with peanut butter," mused my husband as we pushed our heavily-laden trolley down the supermarket aisles last Sunday afternoon. He was feeling exhausted after 6 long hard days at work, so when we got home I decided to give his idea a go and bake him something to restore his flagging energy ... the pumpkin seeds are high in zinc, a real boost for the immune system, mood and skin, the almonds add to the protein and the peanut butter imparts a richness to the flapjacks that makes them feel like a treat although they contain no cane sugar.

The following recipe is based on my mother's old one so is in imperial measurements. It makes 16 flapjacks:

10oz porridge oats

6oz ground almonds

6oz xylitol

6oz smooth no-sugar peanut butter

3-4 fl.oz date syrup

2 fl.oz peanut oil

a good handful of pumpkin seeds

• Gently melt together the xylitol, date syrup, peanut butter and peanut oil in a large, thick-bottomed saucepan
• Stir in the oats, almonds and pumpkin seeds
• Press well down into a rectangular Swiss roll- type baking tin
• Bake at 180C in a preheated oven, on the middle shelf, for about 20 minutes, or until nicely browned- watch carefully, and press down with a spatula from time to time
• Mark out into rectangles, but do not attempt to cut them or lift out from the tray until completely cold, or they will crumble!