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Jammy fridge forage flapjacks

25 September 2023

This recipe is adapted from the version in my cookbook, Postal Bakes, available in all good book shops. To get the recipe, sign up to my new and free baking newsletter, Sweet Disposition, HERE

Thanks to my micro baking business, my newsletter and occasional freelance recipe writing gigs, I do quite a lot of baking. A lot of produce passes through this kitchen and over the years, I’ve gotten better at shopping wisely. I know pretty accurately how much of each ingredient I'll need, how long that ingredient will last, and what I might do with anything that’s left over. Whenever I can, I'll freeze excess caramels and fruit compotes, ready for the next time I have a cake order that calls for them. Or the leftovers might end up being turned into something else. Or perhaps, and most pleasingly, just spooned over yoghurt for a rather elaborate work from home breakfast al desco. 

More often than I’d like however, this slightly nauseating rhythm of togetherness is disrupted when life gets in the way. The grand plans I had for a punnet of leftover apricots fall by the wayside thanks to a comms crisis at work or wine with a friend, breezily diarised weeks ago and then immediately forgotten about until the hurry along text comes in. 

In these instances, the top shelf of our fridge quietly gathers, not dust, but the baking equivalent of a thick layer of the stuff. A few spoonfuls of jam, the near empty jar shoved to the back and never thought of again. Lemons looking increasingly sad with each day that I plan to cook with them and forget goes by. Half a plum which I didn’t need and simply couldn’t bear to throw away. 

At times such as these, an easy, adaptable recipe is in order - and that’s exactly when fridge forage flapjacks enter the chat. With a base made of ingredients I usually have in my cupboards - butter, sugar, oats syrup and salt - the filling is a world of flexible, fridge-clearing possibility. This recipe can be adapted to accommodate, well, just about anything. I’ve made these with gooseberries, rhubarb, salted caramel, sad looking pears, peanut brittle and probably many more that I’ve long since forgotten, just like those lemons that I really MUST cook with this week. 

See this less as a recipe and more as an opportunity to experiment. Encased in buttery, syrupy oats and baked low and slow, almost anything you have lingering will go from sad to incredibly delicious. Mix up your spices - ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, or just nothing, the flapjacks are great as they are - to match your filling. The quantities are there just as a guide, too - pile the filling in, or daintily chop up and scatter that lonely half of a plum over the oats before you put them in the oven. 

Oh, and one last thing. If you can bear it, use their baking time to give your fridge a spring clean, too. A deeply unappealing job, but the impact a clean fridge has on my mental wellbeing is higher than I’d like to admit. Opening the door to a clean, orderly situation makes me feel like my mind is in that state, too. And you might just find something else that you’d forgotten. In my case this week, it was three jars of half eaten wholegrain mustard - one of the things I wouldn’t advise sandwiching into flapjacks. 

This recipe is adapted from the version in my cookbook, Postal Bakes, available in all good book shops. To get the recipe, sign up to my new and free baking newsletter, Sweet Disposition, HERE


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Sign up to Sweet Disposition: my new newsletter

10 September 2023


Hello! How are you? Keeping well I hope? 

It amazes me but also makes my heart swell that despite nearly three years of quiet around these parts, over 300 of you still visit this blog every single day. My intention was always that Pudding Lane would remain an achive of recipes and writing, available to whoever wanted to use them, and I couldn't be happier to see that that is exactly what's happening. 

For anyone who's exhausted the archives and might be looking for newer writing and recipes, I have a couple of places to point you! Firstly, my cookbook, Postal Bakes, which came out last year and features over 60 recipes for cakes, bars, cookies and other treats that you can package up and send in the post. Although of course, you don't have to do that. Published by Welbeck, Postal Bakes is available to buy from Amazon, Waterstones, John Lewis and all good bookshops.

Secondly, and especially for those of you who might miss me appearing in your inbox with new recipes each week, please do sign up to receive my newsletter, Sweet Disposition. After a brief hiatus, I'm back to sharing weekly recipes and writing on what I've been enjoying, the restaurants I've been loving, the cookbooks I've been baking from, and so much more. For now, Sweet Disposition is 100% free, and it takes seconds to sign up - HERE is your link. 

Here's a snippet of what you have to catch up on if you're not already subscribed. Lots of new recipes...

*Our pistachio & raspberry wedding cake*








And new, original writing, musings and life updates too. Including...our wedding! Hope to see you over in my new little corner of the internet. Lucy x








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Goodbye Pudding Lane, hello Sweet Disposition: a newsletter

22 January 2023

I've lost count of the number of times I've opened a blog post with an apology, so instead of dwelling too much on my absence, I'll start with an announcement. I've moved! 

My new newsletter, Sweet Disposition, officially launched today on Substack. It's free to read, lands straight in your inbox, and is a new home for recipes, restaurant recommendations, cookbook favourites and other life updates. You can sign up HERE

I've dived into where I've been and why I've moved to Substack in my first post, so I'll let you read that when you join me over there. Let's just say, it's time for a fresh start.

While I'll now be writing elsewhere, Pudding Lane is going nowhere. I am so incredibly proud of this space and community; it has been the greatest privilege sharing recipes, news and my life with you in these four (?) walls since 2014. This space will remain live, with my recipe archives free to access for anyone who still wants to use them. Please do keep tagging me and telling me how you've got on with my recipes! For day to day updates you can find me baking on Instagram, and I hope to see you over on Substack too.

Pudding Lane, I love you. You were the starting point for so much adventure. Now - let's see what's next. 

Lucy x

 




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