In my kitchen: Flapjack

After my lovely roast chicken dinner last weekend,  I was craving something sweet. As I had run out of eggs, I wasn’t able to bake a cake. So I had a look in the cupboard to see what I could make with the ingredients I did have: sugar, syrup, butter and oats.

Enter a childhood favourite…flapjack. {To my American readers, this is very similar to a granola bar but a much softer and moist, without any of the fruit and nut}.

Now you wouldn’t believe how difficult it was trying to find a decent recipe for flapjack online. After scouring various sites I settled on the recipe below.

Ingredients:

Chopped rolled (cheap porridge) oats 125g

Rolled (premium porridge) oats 125g

Margarine or butter 150g

Golden syrup 75g or 4 tablespoons

Sugar 75g (ideally brown sugar)

Instructions:

1. Put the 150g of margarine, 75g of sugar & 75g of golden syrup in saucepan and heat until it is all liquid.
2. Meanwhile line the baking tin with greaseproof paper.
3. Mix all the oats into the liquid.
4. Put the mixture into the baking tin & press flat.
5. Bake at 175 °C (Gas Mark 4) for 25 to 30 minutes. Warning: the timing is tolerant but accuracy in temperature is critical.
6. Slice into squares before it sets but leave in place in tin.
7. Leave to cool and set.

Now these flapjacks came out soft and I actually prefer them more crunchy, so my brother (who is a chef extraordinaire) has advised that next time, I cook them for longer time at a higher heat.

You can make many variations to the traditional recipe – add chocolate chips, coat with chocolate on top, you name it, you can do it. As it is such a simple recipe, you can’t really go wrong.

With a cold glass of milk – yummy! Takes me right back to my youth! :)