Pear Flapjacks

These delicious pear flapjacks are slightly chewy and very moreish. They are low in added sugar, using grated pear as a natural sweetener. Easy to make and perfect for lunchboxes.

What you'll love about the recipe

• Quick and easy to make, with just a few simple ingredients
• Perfect for lunchboxes. Pear flapjacks hold together well and aren't messy to eat
• They are low in added sugar. The sweetness in the recipe comes from the pears and just a couple of tablespoons of honey
• Made with healthy wholegrain oats
• Pears are a good source of fibre, vitamins and minerals

Tip: if you're short on time, why not try these no bake flapjacks? There are also lots more homemade healthy flapjack recipes to browse.

Ingredients

There's just a few everyday ingredients needed to make these healthy pear flapjacks.

Pear. Using a ripe pear will increase the sweetness and ensure that the pear cooks through properly.

If you've got a glut of pears, you might also like to try this pear crumble recipe, or quick pear and walnut chutney. Stewed pears are also delicious.

Cinnamon. This is entirely optional, but does go very well with the flavour of pear and enhances the sweetness. You could either omit the cinnamon, or use another spice such as ground ginger, nutmeg or cardamom. (If using one of these, use half the quantity as they are stronger in flavour.)

Oats. You'll need porridge, rolled or old fashioned oats. These have a good texture which will hold together well. Jumbo oats can make flapjacks a little too crumbly and don't stick together so well. If you want gluten free flapjacks, make sure that you use certified oats that have been processed separately from other grains.

Butter. You can use salted or unsalted butter. You can also substitute a vegan butter, coconut oil or olive oil if you prefer.

Honey. A couple of tablespoons of honey will bring out the sweetness of the pears. If you want vegan pear flapjacks, use maple syrup instead.

How to make pear flapjacks

For this quantity of mixture, you'll need a baking tin approximately 20 cm x 10 cm. I find that a 2 lb/ 900 g loaf tin is ideal. Although the mixture will not come very far up the sides of the tin, the flapjacks will cook through perfectly well. Line the base of the tin with some baking paper so that it's easy to remove the cooked flapjacks.

If you want to make double the quantity of mixture, you can use a 20 cm x 20 cm tin.

Melt the butter and honey in a pan over a low heat. Remove from the heat as soon as the butter has melted so that the mixture doesn't boil.

Meanwhile, grate the pear. I don't think it's necessary to peel the pear, so just leave it whole and grate it directly off the core. (Unpeeled fruits are more nutritious, they contain more fibre and many of the nutrients are stored just under the peel.)

Add the pear, oats and spice to the butter/honey mixture. Stir well until all the oats are thoroughly mixed in and coated.

Spoon the mixture into the lined tin and smooth the top with the spoon.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees (160 fan) for 30 minutes. Turn partway if necessary to ensure that the flapjacks brown evenly.

Leave the pear flapjacks cool in the tin. Lift out and cut into 8 squares.

Storage

Store the pear flapjacks in an airtight container for up to 5 days. They also freeze well.

Frequently asked questions

Other healthy flapjack recipes

You might also like to try these healthy oat bar recipes.

These apple flapjacks are naturally sweetened with applesauce. Maple granola bars have a lovely rich syrupy flavour. Both rhubarb flapjacks and these date slices have a layer of fruit running through the middle.

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Recipe

Please note nutritional information is for guidance only