One of my most popular entries on the blog is for Flapjacks. Flapjacks, in the UK, are made with oats and are formed into squares or bars. They are not the same as the US flapjacks which are pancakes.
Made with the oats, butter, brown sugar and golden syrup they are simply delicious. This variant uses some raisins though different dried fruits such as sultanas, currents, cranberries etc can be used too, or even in combination.
Adding some chopped nuts is also an option to give a different texture as well a flavour.
In fact the basic recipe for flapjacks is adaptable to include almost anything, fruit, nuts, seeds, chocolate etc, that you may wish to try.
The addition of the raisins raises these, already, wonderful flapjacks to another level, giving the fruity flavour which perfectly complements the original recipe.
Being so easy to make the flapjacks are perfect when time is pressing and you need something that doesn’t take long but offers a great flavour.
The use of golden syrup and brown sugar, along with the butter imparts a wonderful caramel flavour to the flapjacks and the chewy texture is so satisfying.
For those who don’t have access to golden syrup good substitutes are honey, corn syrup or maple syrup though, obviously, the flavour profile will change somewhat too.
Although I used, as I mention in the recipe below, a combination of Old Fashioned Rolled Oat and Porridge(porage) oats, just to give a little extra texture, the recipe works fine just with the Porridge oats. In some places porridge oats are simply known as oatmeal.
My raisin flapjacks baked perfectly and they tasted fantastic. When they came out of the oven a few of the raisins had swollen and had raised up out of the oats. I simply used the bottom of a measuring cup to press them back down.
For my original blog post on Flapjacks you can check here
Raisin Flapjacks – Raisin Oat Bars
Course: Biscuits & CookiesCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy18
servings15
minutes30
minutesIngredients
500g(5 1/2 cups) Oats ( I used 4 parts porridge oats and one part old-fashioned rolled oat for additional texture)
250g(2 sticks + 1 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter
250g(1 1/4 cups)soft light brown sugar
100g(5 tbsp) golden syrup(alternatives are maple syrup, corn syrup or honey)
3g(1/2 tsp) salt
150g(1 cup) raisins(or dried fruit of choice)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/3530F.
- Grease an 8×12 inch(20×30 cm) pan and line it with parchment paper.
- Place the sugar, butter, salt and golden syrup into a saucepan and heat on the stove until the butter is melted and the sugar has dissolved with everything well combined.
- In a large bowl stir the raisins into the oats.
- Pour the wet mixture into the oats and stir around until all the oats and raisins are fully coated in the liquid ingredients.
- Put the mixture into the prepared pan and spread over the base, ensuring it is as level as possible.
- Press down the mixture to compact it into the pan.
- Bake in the oven for 25 to 35 minutes(mine took 30 minutes) until the edges begin to colour and dry out.
- Remove the flapjacks from the oven and immediately score lines to mark the size of the bars you want. Don’t cut all the way through at this stage.
- Allow the flapjacks to cool completely before removing from the pan and then use a sharp knife to cut into bars, using the scored marks.