Think Flapjacks!!

So onto Article 2 and I said I’d be true to me… so food it is!!!

I’m not going to broad spectrum this one. I’ll be quite precise in a family tradition and love of ours that is Flapjacks…. Yes, you heard me right…. Oat laiden Flapjacks….

Now I will divulge my recipe for them, but you’ll need to read on a little further first…..

First things first, we always had them in our house. They’re a great energy food, not only because of the sugar content but the oat factor as well. They’re a quick handy snack to grab on the go with a homemade takeaway coffee. They’re a good one when the kids are Hangry (hungry angry) and they need a little pick me up but really the main food is going to take a little longer than their last energy levels and hanger will. So, pop one out of the tin, give those little mites a snack and let them loose in the garden.

Everyone in my family, and I mean EVERYONE!!, is a lover of the family recipe flapjacks. We may (or may not lol) have inherited a sweet tooth from the matriarch of the family whom we believe had glucose running through her veins rather than blood 😊 So these ones are a real hit!

I’ve made them over the years, and I know the recipe is the same, but everyone keeps coming back to me saying mine are the best and they absolutely loved them. Even friends who’ve had them maybe once or twice.

I’ve bought innumerable ones over the years too. Chocolate topped ones, yoghurt topped ones, others with nuts and some with raisins, tried them all (usually when too lazy to have made them myself but also tired and in need of energy). A really good flapjack is truly hard to come by…. Similar could be said for a scone I guess too but the topic we’re on is flapjacks, scones are a discussion for another day 😊

Right so onto the recipe, note this is from a family members head so not copied from a book!

Ingredients:

8 oz / 225g Sugar (preferably Caster but whatever you can get your hands on)

8 oz / 225g Margerine (truthfully, I use good salted butter, but if you’re not too inclined to butter use margarine)

1 Egg

Golden Syrup (use to taste, but I would typically use approx. the whole of a 454g tin – but again use to taste, it’s very sweet but bear in mind this helps bind the mixture with the egg)

Oat flakes (this is something you need to watch with your eye on the quantity)

Instructions:

Preheat the over to 180 degrees Celsius / 355 degrees Fahrenheit.

Melt all of the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a Large pan. Melt it until the you can no longer see grains of sugar and it has in effect turned to a sugar syrup in the mix and the 3 items have melted together.

Once melted, turn the heat on the hob down to 1 or very low. You only want the heat under the pan to keep the pan warm, so the sugary mix doesn’t start to crystallise. Then begin to add the oats and mix through the sugary mixture. I tell you this one would build the muscles in your arms! Keep adding oats until you think they are starting to look like there is no sugary mix to coat anymore of them. Then add the egg and mix throughout the oaty mixture.

You may need to add a few more oats after the egg if you think the mixture starts to look too wet again. The amount of oats that you will add will come down to personal taste after having made this recipe a few times.

Get an oven tin or dish (I’ll leave the size up to you, it’ll really just depend on how thick you want to make them, but historically I’ve always gone for about Brownie thickness). Rub the sides and bottom of tin with a thin layer of butter, this will help to stop the sugary mix sticking to the tin or dish.

Pour the mixture into the tin and then using a spoon spread it out evenly across the tin. You will need to then find a means of compacting the mixture down. I would normally use a potato masher (see pic of mine in the header above) to do this but you could use the bottom of a strong glass or anything really. You just want to push them together firmly.

You can now pop them in your hot oven. They can take as little as 10 minutes or as much as 20 minutes. I know that they are already golden, but they will be ready when they look like the oats have puffed a bit and the top is a golden roasted colour. Remove from the oven once you’re happy that they’re cooked.

The most IMPORTANT tip… get a knife and cut them into squares or rectangles, or any shape you like really, so that you can take them out easily once they cool. Otherwise you may struggle with actually cutting later and they may crumble on you.

Other Tips:

You can add anything you like to these that is of your taste – nuts, raisins, chocolate, fruit (dried is probably best)… let your imagination go wild!! 😊

All I can say on this now is Happy Eating folks!! If you do get the time to make them let me know what you thought and if you need any pointers I’m more than happy to reply to comments 😊

Disclaimer – I’m not a professional chef and this recipe did not come from a cookbook – this is one passed to me by a family member and the method is how I would normally bake them.