Blackfriars Bakewell Flapjack

I was strolling around my local Holland & Barratt store, and came across Blackfriars cake range, something my brother had eaten for a phase in his teens. Only previously eaten these on the rarest of occasions, I picked up a Bakewell Flapjack to give them another go.

Bakewell tarts/pies (I won’t get into that) are a real treat for me, and I seem to have a weak spot for those good old retro cakes, so the mix of flapjacks and Bakewells (see what I did there?) got me all tempted. Grabbing the bar I was impressed by the weight, coming in at 100g, and opened the pack to a sweet almond odour. Sometimes almonds can smell off putting, but here it was employed successfully and built up a high level of expectation. But this didn’t quite meet those The ‘iced’ topping was rather plane on its own, but added a necessary texture change to the oat bar beneath, which was dense and more greasy rather than buttery. The taste was dominated by that almond element, and was at the very limit of edible as a result of the heavy use of almond essence. Luckily I like almonds but they really are not to everyone’s taste so a quick warning!

Very little influence came from the fruit jam layer between the bar and topping (acknowledged as ‘white chocolate flavour’), and so seemed a bit pointless. But I ate it any way.

And then I was done. Wow, these are more than ample! Any appetite was crushed and stayed away for most of the rest of the day, but I was left feeling that the bar (and also the rest of range which is quite extensive) tried to create interesting variations whilst overlooking some obvious flaws in its fundamental flapjack.

Fabulous Bakin' Boys Honey and Fruit Flapjack

I grabbed this at a half price discount, and having eaten (and been impressed by) the regular Fabulous Bakin’ Boys Flapjack variety before I had high hopes for this Honey and Fruit version.

Tucking in, I was aware at how gooey it was in my hands, with a moist and slightly sticky (in a good way) crumb. The buttery aroma and familiar rich oaty taste were both evident, but surprisingly the fruit, seeds and honey, (which should be making it distinct) seemed to lack any contribution to the flavour. A few more bites in, and I could begin to sense a honey-ish hint and could notice a small textural change with the other embellishments, but they didn’t contribute much else.

The fantastic flapjack at the core of the product dominated the other aspects of it, and was enjoyable for that alone. Its just a real shame the additional constituents were not as successful.