Making Flapjacks

So, we made flapjacks today, straight from the Scott's Porage Oats box that I bought at the British grocery store yesterday. As I mentioned, Mama loved flapjacks--not American pancakes, but a British not-quite-crunchy granola bar made purely of oats, though not your regular Quaker oats, and sugar and butter--on our two trips to England and has been disappointed that you can't get them here, even at the British store. And, while it seems a fairly common food, I'd never tracked down a recipe I thought sounded reliable (even in my Mrs. Beeton's!). And then, yesterday, for the first time, I found a box of Scott's with a recipe for flapjacks on the back. So, I bought the box, picked up a can of Lyle's Golden syrup (hmmmm, this is good stuff, like honey and corn syrup and maple syrup all in one yummy can. I'm learning all sorts of recipes to use it, like sticky toffee pud), and was sure I had a bag of demerara sugar (same as turbinado, or raw, sugar) at home.

Today, Sis and I made flapjacks. But there were some challenges. I had spent last night trying to convert the metric recipe to American standard (wouldn't you know my standard/metric scale's battery is dead??). Turns out that 125g of butter is 8.8 tablespoons. But I found that 125g of demerara is not 2 cups, as I hard unearthed last night. It's more like 1/2-3/4 cup (based on a little less than halving my 283g bag of sugar). And the 225g of oats is a little less than half a box, or about 2 cups, roughly. Luckily, the oven temps were given not only in Celsius and Gas Marks (what is a gas mark?), but also Fahrenheit. But what is a 20 cm sandwich tin? A bread loaf pan? What do Brits make sandwiches in? Mama googled it and found a picture--it's a 8 or 9" round cake pan.

With all that info, we were ready to bake. There was some tension with the golden syrup, which I got all over me, Sis, the stove, and the can, as I had forgotten to spray the measuring spoons with cooking spray first so that the syrup would just slide right off. Not that anyone minds licking golden syrup off anything! Otherwise, it's kinda like making Rice Krispie treats--melt butter and sticky stuff on the stove, add cereal. But here, you also add ground ginger, which was a surprise (I probably added only 1/2-3/4 teaspoon, instead of 1 whole teaspoon). Then you put it in a greased "sandwich tin" and bake it at 375F for 20 minutes.

Oh, it bubbled and browned and filled the whole house with this wonderful oatey smell. The flapjacks are cooling now, which they'll do for almost as long as they cooked (boiling sugar is way too hot to try to eat). We'll score them into pie shapes and eat them after dinner. I can't wait!

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Flapjacks

125g (approx. 9 tablespoons) butter or cooking margarine

125g (approx. 1/2-3/4 cup) demerara sugar (aka turbinado or raw sugar)

5 tablespoons golden syrup

225g (approx. 2 cups) Scott's Porage Oats (NOT old-fashioned Quaker Oats or even McCann's Steel Cut Oats)

1 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 190C, 375F, Gas Mark 5. Grease in a 20 cm sandwich tin (8 or 9" round cake pan).

Melt butter in a large pan and stir in the sugar and syrup. Add the Scott's Porage Oats and ground ginger and mix well.

Using the back of a metal spoon press mixture evenly over the base of tthe tin and smooth over.

Bake for 20 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes in the tin, then score into 8 wedges.

Cool completely, turn out and break into wedges.

Scott's Porage Oats box