Flapjack!

Here we go then - my flapjack recipe.

Ingredients for basic flapjack

7 oz Butter (substitute with dairy free spread for vegan version)
7 oz Dark Brown Sugar
2 tablespoons Golden Syrup
9  oz Jumbo Rolled Oats (give a better texture than ordinary cheapo porridge oats)
2 tablespoons Plain Flour (for gluten free version, use gluten free flour with ½ tspn xanthium gum)

Method

Line a 12" x 7" baking tray with grease-proof paper or foil and grease it really well with butter. This is really important, otherwise it sticks badly.  

Preheat the oven to 170 C

• Melt the butter, brown sugar and syrup together in a pan.
• Mix the jumbo oats and flour together and at this stage, add any other ingredients (see below)
• Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the butter-sugar-syrup mixture. Fold together
•  Tip the mixture into the lined baking tray. Spread it around evenly but don't press it too firmly into the corners and edges (as this tends to make it stick).
• Put in the oven at 170 C for 25 to 30 minutes. 

Important - when you take it out of the oven,
turn it out, upside down onto a cooling wire 
as soon as you can handle it.  You need to 
get the grease proof paper / foil off as 
soon as possible, otherwise it will stick - 
especially at the edges.

Variations

M & M - chuck a handful of M & Ms (plain / peanut / biscuit / mixed) into the oats and flour.  When flapjack is cool, melt chocolate, spread over the top and drop M & Ms all over it. I challenge you to cut it up without making a mess!

Maple & Pecan  - use maple syrup instead of golden syrup. Add 4 oz roughly chopped pecans to the oats and flour.

Chocolate Ginger - add 6 oz chopped crystallized stem ginger to the oats and flour. When flapjack is cool, melt chocolate, spread over the top and drop chopped crystallized stem ginger all over it.

Date and Hazelnut - add 3 oz chopped dates  and 3 oz chopped hazelnuts to the flour mix

I think you could add just about anything to the mix.  I tried jelly beans once.  The flapjacks were delicious but they did try hard to stick to the grease proof paper so a little frustrating. 

If you make them with a different variation and they are good, please leave me a message.  I'd be interested to hear more ideas.

The best thing about these is -

      a) they are delicious

      b) the variations are endless

      c) they are very easy to make

      d) they contain absolutely NO CALORIES.

One of the above statements might not be entirely true.  In fact, it might be a barefaced lie!