Having baked so many flapjacks over the years Eve and I can tell you that this is the best recipe by a long way… perfect for hiking and backpacking!

These peanut flapjacks (or cookies) are simple to make, don’t require baking, use only 6 simple ingredients, and are quick to make with basic equipment. They freeze well with no loss of taste or texture and have survived being thrown around in our backpacks for days before being eaten.

Sarah first introduced Eve and me to these flapjacks by making a batch when we were backpacking the West Highland Way and being filmed for our documentary. 

We now always have several of these made and ready to go in the freezer, to grab as a convenient but substantial breakfast or lunch when backpacking.

I am confident, although I have not tried it yet, that we could even make these whilst backpacking on a canister stove! This will be something for us to try in the winter.

The only potential downside is they can be a little oily, but for us, this is not an issue at all as we wrap them up well and usually eat them sat outside.

Enough to keep Eve and me hiking for hours…

Method

  1. Put the peanut butter, coconut oil, and cocoa powder in a large saucepan and melt on low heat.
  2. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in the oats, honey and vanilla.
  3. Chill for about 30 minutes until firm but pliable.
  4. Using your hands, mould it into thick cookie shapes.
  5. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour before eating or freezing.
Hints
We cut out 9.5 cm2 greaseproof paper squares to go below & on top of the flapjacks before putting them in bags and freezing them. We also use a 8cm round cookie cutter that we put on top of one of the grease-proof paper squares, pushing the mixture into with a spoon. We use approximately 90 - 95 grams of mixture per flapjack which makes 7 flapjacks, giving us 1 per day for a week!

Ingredients

  • 250 grams (1 cup) peanut butter
  • 70 grams (1/3 cup) coconut oil
  • 35 grams (1/3 cup) cocoa powder
  • 115 grams (1/3 cup) honey
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 170 grams (2 cups) of oats

Storing

We like to keep them in batches of two, one for Eve and one for me, in the freezer. Sarah can’t eat peanuts so that's why they are only in packs of two.

Adding a small square of grease-proof paper between them and then wrapping them, they can last for days in the fridge, even longer in an airtight container and months in the freezer. Having no water in them, and well wrapped we don't get any ice crystals forming on them. 

I have carried these flapjacks for several days whilst backpacking with no disintegration or other issues, helped by the fact they contain no dairy!

Substitutions

I don't like the idea of eating honey as I try to eat a plant-based diet as much as I can. You could substitute the honey for golden syrup or even maple syrup, but that would increase the cost so we haven’t tried them with maple syrup yet.

The peanut butter we use is Meridian Smooth when it's on offer at Tesco. I would advise strongly against using any peanut butter with Palm Oil and to use butter with 100% peanuts. Aldi does a good one, it’s cheaper and can be purchased in 1kg containers!

You could also swap the peanut butter for almond butter or alternative nut butter but we like peanuts and they're cheaper!

You could try adding seeds and dried fruit such as raisins but we think the basic recipe is perfect for our needs.

If you are not as into the whole outdoors scene as we are and dont have to worry about carrying them for long periods of time, you could elevate the flapjacks by drizzling some chocolate over the top and decorating them somehow!

There you have it, our favourite breakfast flapjacks when we are backpacking. If you try making them yourself, please let us know how you get on and if you like them as much as we do.