Flapjacks

Flapjacks
Makes 16 bars

Ingredients: 
190g butter or spread
280g soft brown sugar
4 tblsp golden syrup
370g oats

Method:
Heat the oven to 180C (or 170 fan)

Melt the spread, brown sugar and syrup in a small saucepan over a low heat, stirring lightly, until the ingredients are mixed together.

Put the oats into a bowl, then pour in the contents of the pan, and mix together until well blended.

Line an ovenproof tray, 25cm x 20cm in size, with baking paper, then spoon the mixture in, pushing into the corners and smoothing the top so it's fairly even.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until the top is just starting to turn darker golden (or longer if you prefer them more crunchy). Remove from the oven, then leave to cool in the pan for about ten minutes. Cut into squares or rectangles in the pan, then turn out when cold.

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Flapjacks are popular as a quick snack, and sometimes considered healthy, despite the high fat and sugar content. Perhaps it's because they contain oats rather than flour. They are very sweet indeed; as a child I could eat two or three, but now I find that one is sufficient.

This is a recipe I remember from my childhood. I don't know where my mother found it; perhaps on the side of an old-fashioned tin of Lyle's golden syrup. Her recipe was for a 10 x 6 inch pan, which she greased rather than lining. I've had flapjacks stick too many times to risk it.

Even with a good non-stick pan, it's well worth using some baking paper too. Make sure it's not the kind that needs greasing, or the flapjacks will probably stick to the paper and make a mess.

I have tried other recipes, from books or online, but although they're all good, none of them match up to this. Other recipes sometimes include spices, and are picky about what kind of oats are used. I just use the breakfast oats that we can buy cheaply. I should think any kind would work but have not tried with any other kind.

I cut mine using a plastic firm spatula, so as not to damage the non-stick pan, and it works well. It's important to cut them before the mixture hardens, as it becomes much more difficult once it's fully set. If the cuts are made while warm, it's easy to break them apart when cool.

I cut mine into 16 good-sized bars, but you could of course cut them into smaller bars, perhaps 24 or even more, although it's more difficult to keep them looking even with smaller pieces.

If you are in the United States or somewhere else that does not stock golden syrup, I don't recommend using the high fructose corn variety that's popular there, but not legal in Europe. Honey might work as an alternative, or maple syrup, or even molasses; but they will each give their own distinctive flavour, which is best (in my view, anyway) with traditional plain golden syrup.

I was a bit dubious about using spread rather than butter; we use the Flora dairy-free one, as we tend to avoid dairy products, and I was afraid the flapjacks might not be solid enough. However they turned out just as I remembered them, gooey and yet firm, and I could not taste the spread at all.