Today I'd like to talk to you about flapjack

[wafter]

Having developed an unhealthy dependence on the crack-like flapjack from the farm shop I decided to have a go at my own in an effort to keep myself warm on the commute / throughout the day.

I started off with a very basic recipe (oats, butter, golden syrup) published by Lyles on youtube; which has slowly been corrupted over various iterations and now also contains black treacle, dark chocolate and ginger.

I generally don't do cooking as I'm not great at it and lack most of the attributes required to make it work, but the flapjacks have really got me hooked.

Granted they contain a lot of sugar but are also pretty good nutritionally - a fair bit of fibre and protein from the oats and chocolate, trace elements from the treacle, gingerol from the ginger; which apparently brings decent health benefits. On top of this they're great for a nice consistant release of energy after eating due to the spectrum of carbs ranging from the high-GI sugar in the syrup and treacle to the low-GI energy in the oats.

Even with fairly posh ingredients (including eye-wateringly expensive gluten-free oats) they come in at about 70p per 80-90g serving - so cheaper than shop-bought stuff, probably better quality ingredients, no nasty preservatives / additives / processed crap and no plastic waste - being transported in brown paper bags recycled from the purchase of mushrooms or other loose veg.. which then get repurposed as fire lighters when too greasy.

I think I'm on my seventh tray today and intend to keep baking them as they're a win on every front; the only potential downside being excess consumption in the face of falling time on the bike; my basic commute both ways requiring about 1.5-2 flapjacks' worth of energy.

While pretty much set on the current recipe I'm tempted to maybe introduce a bit of orange to see where that takes proceedings and am always keen to hear suggestions as to how they could be further improved from your own exploits

 

[Ridgeway]

I’ve dropped any refined sugars in mine:

• 250ml oats
• 125ml walnuts, chopped
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 apple chopped (i use cooking apples as we have loads of them skin left on)
• 1 banana, mashed
• 125ml oats (additional) to firm up the mixture

30mins at 170 degrees

 

[bluenotebob]

always keen to hear suggestions as to how they could be further improved from your own exploits

My friend occasionally sells them at one of the local markets and she includes raisins in the mix. They're good - and yes, excellent cycling fuel.

Any photos of your own flapjacks @wafter ?

 

[craigwend]

Try a bit of mixed peel as the [not so] secret ingredient ...

 

[geocycle]

I add nuts, raisins and sunflower seeds to the basic mix. Dried apricot can also be nice.

 

[wafter]

Cheers all - seems I'm in good company

I made some flapjacks the other day.
Now, I’m quite a good cook, been cooking all my life, the first four years of my working life was training as a chef, working in restaurants. I know my way round a kitchen and a cook book.

My flapjacks the other day were a complete clusterfeck, and I have no idea why.

We ate them, but they just crumbled, tasted odd, and were, quite frankly, a disgrace.

Edit to add the recipe. Not recommended.
https://somethingsweetsomethingsavoury.com/marmalade-flapjacks/#mv-creation-383-jtr

That's a shame - looks good from the recipe. Given your bakground I'm sure you're far more qualified to judge what went wrong than I am; I guess the obvious one would be too much cooking (temp or duration) or perhaps the need for a shorter cooking time if you're using a shallower tray?

I cut the cooking time on mine from 25 to 21-22 minutes; they're a nice consistency but don't hold together too well unfortunately.. I think this is probably mostly the fault of the chocolate and maybe larger GF jumbo oats.

They might also do a bit better if I let them cool fully before trying to get them out of the tray.. although that requires more self control than I'm typically capable of

I’ve dropped any refined sugars in mine:

• 250ml oats
• 125ml walnuts, chopped
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 apple chopped (i use cooking apples as we have loads of them skin left on)
• 1 banana, mashed
• 125ml oats (additional) to firm up the mixture

30mins at 170 degrees

View attachment 754315

Sounds great

I thought similar about honey but that would really push the price up (golden syrup is about £2.30/kg, the nice local honey from the farm shop is about £15/kg.. also I like the black treacle but think that might be a bit of a corruption were I to use honey.

The nuts and seasonings in yours sound appealing, although I generally can't do fruit (especially bananas!). I suspect the cinnamon might pair nicely with the ginger.

I did buy some pistachios to cook with by they all got mysteriously eaten before I had the chance..

My friend occasionally sells them at one of the local markets and she includes raisins in the mix. They're good - and yes, excellent cycling fuel.

Any photos of your own flapjacks @wafter ?

Nice - I'd be quite open to flogging some if I had a market. Raisins seem popular although sadly I don't do well with dried fruit.

I don't have any photos but tbh they'd probably be put to shame by the contributions of others as they're just a bit homogenous and brown, while presentation has never been my strong point. Will see what I can do though

Try a bit of mixed peel as the [not so] secret ingredient ...

Thanks - think that could be a win. Maybe I'll buy the old dear some citrus fruits so I can snaffle some of the rhind..

I add nuts, raisins and sunflower seeds to the basic mix. Dried apricot can also be nice.

Cheers - nuts sound good; dried fruit sadly less-so in my case..


Since recipes have been mentioned, here's where mine stands at currently:

- 500g rolled oats
- 150g golden syrup
- 100g black treacle
- 300g butter (I like salt so use salted)
- 90g dark cooking chocolate
- 50g fresh root ginger (more like 40g once peeled)
- A pinch of salt

Method is to add all of the butter / syrup / treacle / chocolate / salt to a large pan on the scales to minimise washing up. Stick it all on a low heat while swearing about how long it takes to peel, and subsequently finely-chop the ginger before banging that in the pan too.

Once it's all melted and mixed fold in the oats, chuck it in a butter-greased enamelled baking tray (can't remember the dims; maybe 20x30cm or thereabouts), level it all off / squash down with a wooden spoon and cook for 21ish minutes at a pre-heated 180 degrees.

Just had one with some salted caramel ice cream and it was amazing

 

[All uphill]

Elsewhere on CC the idea came up of hanging doggy poo bags on your bike as an excellent thief deterrent.

I wondered then what to fill the bags with; the obvious answer is home made flapjack!

Thief sees a bike festooned in bags and decides to move on. Notices bike rider emerge from the bushes, open a poo bag and eat the contents!

 

[Chief Broom]

Ive updated my 'no bake' recipe and have avoided using dried fruit which includes raisons/sultanas that can have gritty seeds and unpleasant to chomp down on [lose a filling]. Dried apricots can be substituted for mango but i really like mango!
Ingredients -
5 mugs of oats, 1 jar of clear honey, 1 tin of prunes, 100g dried mango, 100g dried cranberries, 100g chopped walnuts, 100g sliced almonds, 4 tbs peanut butter, a dash of lemon juice. Method- Stone and chop the prunes and retain the juice, soak the mango in the prune juice for 20 mins which softens it then discard the juice and chop the mango. Put all the ingredients except the oats in a large pan and heat until molten. Warm the oats in a separate dry pan and add to the honey molten mix. Stir thoroughly and press into a baking tray and allow to cool. Whap it into a fridge and voila!

 

[MichaelW2]

I use Delia recipe but mine are either too soft or hard.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Orange is good, but so is lemon.

Chocolate strictly should be a topping rather than an ingredient.

Raisins are good, cranberries better, but dried sour cherries are the absolute pinnacle of flapjacks. Unfortunately, eye wateringly expensive.

 

[sheddy]

Just to stir things up - is it possible to (successfully) use an air frier ?

 

[wafter]

Elsewhere on CC the idea came up of hanging doggy poo bags on your bike as an excellent thief deterrent.

I wondered then what to fill the bags with; the obvious answer is home made flapjack!

Thief sees a bike festooned in bags and decides to move on. Notices bike rider emerge from the bushes, open a poo bag and eat the contents!

That could work; I suspect they'd not be messing with you either if they thought you were casually dining on dog eggs..

When I hopefully once more have the need to leave my bike locked up in questionable locations I plan to adorn it with a nice white fabric seat cover, with a big brown and red stain down the middle; can't see anyone chancing that

Ive updated my 'no bake' recipe and have avoided using dried fruit which includes raisons/sultanas that can have gritty seeds and unpleasant to chomp down on [lose a filling]. Dried apricots can be substituted for mango but i really like mango!
Ingredients -
5 mugs of oats, 1 jar of clear honey, 1 tin of prunes, 100g dried mango, 100g dried cranberries, 100g chopped walnuts, 100g sliced almonds, 4 tbs peanut butter, a dash of lemon juice. Method- Stone and chop the prunes and retain the juice, soak the mango in the prune juice for 20 mins which softens it then discard the juice and chop the mango. Put all the ingredients except the oats in a large pan and heat until molten. Warm the oats in a separate dry pan and add to the honey molten mix. Stir thoroughly and press into a baking tray and allow to cool. Whap it into a fridge and voila!

View attachment 754358

Crikey - that appears orders of magnitude beyond my humble efforts... certainly sounds tasty though

I use Delia recipe but mine are either too soft or hard.

Cooking time perhaps?

Orange is good, but so is lemon.

Chocolate strictly should be a topping rather than an ingredient.

Raisins are good, cranberries better, but dried sour cherries are the absolute pinnacle of flapjacks. Unfortunately, eye wateringly expensive.

Never thought of lemon; though Orange might play a bit nicer with the dark chocolate and ginger..?

The chocolate is mostly only integrated in the way it is as I can't be arsed with creating and adding a separate topping; although I suspect you're not wrong.

Never thought of cherries although I suspect they probably don't agree with me either

 

[wafter]

Just to stir things up - is it possible to (successfully) use an air frier ?

Dunno; is it that much different to an oven?

 

[FrankCrank]

We made some flap jack thingies at junior school. Also, some similar ones using cornflakes doused in choccie. Wonder I got any teeth left.

 

[raleighnut]

We made some flap jack thingies at junior school. Also, some similar ones using cornflakes doused in choccie. Wonder I got any teeth left.

Cornflakes doused in Choccy are OK but Rice Crispies doused in dark Chocolate...................Heaven.