Flarn

Flarn is a thin baked wafer-like delicacy, quite popular in Sweden. The French word is tuile and I'm guessing the English version is the snap. I've never made these before, the shaping of them after baking has always seemed like something quite difficult to do. Lundulph is quite partial to the oat flans available to buy in IKEA's food shops and most supermarkets in Sweden. There are several variants in my big book of cakes and earlier this week, I decided to try my hand at two of them, as one of my colleagues was going on maternity leave and another was visiting my office and I wanted to take the opportunity to bake for both of them.

Now the cake book has a few recipes that I've not liked much, but then there are others that have been really good and the two recipes I tried this time are actually really good.

Ingredients - oat snaps

Makes about 50
75 g unsalted butter
15 g baking powder
40 g plain flour
2 large eggs (around 125 g)
275 g caster sugar
175 g porridge oats

Method

1. Melt the butter and set aside.
2. Sift together the baking powder and flour and stir to ensure they are thoroughly mixed.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar with an electric whisk for about 5 minutes until really pale and fluffy.
4. Add the flour mixture and fold in with a spatula.
5. Add the oats and the melted butter, then set aside for about 30 minutes to let the mixture swell up a bit.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 190 °C and line 3 baking sheets with baking paper.
7. Place the mixture into a piping bag, cut a hole about 1 cm wide and pipe walnut-sized blobs on the baking sheets, making sure there's 6 - 7 cm between as they'll float out quite a lot. I managed to fit in 9 per tray.
8. Bake for 6 - 7 minutes, until the snaps start browning around the edges and have an even lace-like surface throughout.
9. Remove from the oven and leave on the baking sheet for about a minute, before carefully removing onto a cooling rack. At this point they can be shaped over e. g. a rolling pin or into tubes or bottles, but you need to be quick, they go solid quite fast.
10. Store in an airtight container when they've cooled completely.

Ingredients - coconut snaps

Makes about 40
125 g caster sugar
125 g unsalted butter
25 g honey, preferably with a strong flavour
125 g dessicated coconut
75 g plain flour

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C and line 3 baking sheets with baking paper
2. With the fingers of one hand work together all the ingredients to a smooth paste.
3. Spoon out 15 g balls onto the baking sheets, making sure there's 6 - 7 cm between them, then flatten each ball to about ½ cm thickness. I managed to get 8 in per tray.
4. Bake for 6 - 7 minutes, until they go golden brown around the edges and have an even lace-like surface throughout. Watch them, because they will burn within seconds.
5. Remove from the oven and leave to stand on the baking tray for about a minute, before carefully removing onto a cooling rack or shape over a rolling pin or roll into tubes. Again, work quickly as they go solid very fast.
6. Place on a wire rack to cool, then store in an airtight container lined with some kitchen tissue to soak up some of the butter that'll come out in the baking.

What can I say - these were absolutely delicious and Lundulph didn't really want to let me take them in to work. He said they were very moreish and almost impossible to stop eating once you've started. They certainly were popular at work too. And there were some left for when Lundulph's parents came to visit - they also struggled to stop eating them.

I've also realised why all recipes for such snaps always say to bake ridiculously low numbers on each tray. Yes, they spread massively, but not just that, it's for when they're baked and need to be shaped - there is about a minute at most to shape all snaps on a tray and if you have 8 - 9 of them, you won't make it, but if there are just 4, then there's time, especially of making tubes. I left the oat snaps flat, and I placed the coconut snaps over my rolling pin and food rings to make them look a bit like pringles.

These snaps turned out to be the most popular bake I've taken to work, I think and word spread and loads of people came round my desk for a taste. Luckily I did leave some at home for Lundulph and for his parents when they came to visit us a couple of days later. All summed up in one work - moreish, almost impossible to stop once you've started.