What Now

Did you know that in the UK, the word "Flapjack" doesn't mean the same thing as it does here? In America a flapjack is a pancake, of course, but in the UK, it is a term for a wonderful, buttery, sticky, gooey oat cake that you cut up into pieces like brownies or cookie bars. Normally I don't gush about sweets unless they contain a fair amount of chocolate, but today I'm going to gush AND I'm going to give you the recipe. That's how good these things are.

As I was wondering through the interwebs, as one without a specific destination is bound to do, I came across a web page dedicated to deciphering the differences between the words we Americans have for certain foods and the ones the British use. Since Steve and I have been watching a lot of British television lately, I was interested, because at times I had no idea what the people on those shows were talking about. The word "flapjack" wasn't mentioned in the article itself, but further down the page in the comment section. Something about it just sounded so good that I had to try making them, so I did. Since I had no idea what one of the ingredients even was, I was a bit afraid that these things might not taste very good, but oh, mama, I was wrong about that! So go, I implore, nay...I demand, that you go to your nearest grocery store and pick up the ingredients for this and make them immediately. If nothing else, they are pretty darned good to eat at breakfast! Go, I say!

The flapjack recipe is very flexible. You can adjust the amount of sugar and syrup to taste and texture (more syrup=more sticky/gooey). It is a great canvas for add-ins: dried fruit, nuts, seeds, spices. So far I've only made them the way the recipe calls for plus adding some dried cranberries, but I'm thinking that chocolate chips might also be good in these.

Ginger Flapjacks (UK):

1 lb oats or one full cup of oats.

1 tsp ground ginger

8 oz butter

4 oz demerara sugar (I didn't know what that was, but you can sub light brown sugar)

1/4 cup golden syrup (Lyle's is the UK standard; heard you can sub 1/2 light corn syrup and 1/2 honey if you can't find golden syrup. I found a tin of Lyle's at my local Publix in the same section as Karo syrup.)

Preheat oven to 300F

Combine dry ingredients. Melt butter, sugar, and syrup until sugar dissolves. Combine butter mixture with dry ingredients. Press into a parchment lined 12"X8" pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes (15 minutes for a softer flapjack/20 minutes for a firmer/crunchier flapjack). Cool in pan 10 minutes and score into bars/squares. Let cool completely before cutting all the way through. Makes about 24 2-inch squares.

I accidentally put in a bit too much of the golden syrup, so my finished product is a bit gooey. Instead of being able to eat them with my hands, I'm going to have to eat them with a fork. They are still delicious, just not hand-holdable. I'll also go ahead and warn you that when you take these out of the oven, they aren't going to seem done. Maybe it was the excess of syrup, but even after baking for 20 minutes, when I pulled them out of the oven, the middle of the pan shook like unbaked batter. However, just let them cool completely and they will firm up.

So there you go. Yummy stuff. Let me know if you made these and how they turned out! :)