What's the secret?

I have tried a variety of recipes/oven temperatures and it's either soft and crumbly or hard and crumbly.

It's always delicious and never wasted but I'd like to make some for a fundraising event and while the family will happily eat crumbs the paying public might be more reluctant.

So I need to make something that will cut into uniform(sh)pieces.

Any ideas?

when you find out let me know I have the same trouble :)

I made some this week that had oats, crushed cornflakes and golden syrup in. I made it to the recipe and it came out as hard as nut brittle! It tasted really nice ....in fact the FiL asked me to make some for bonfire night I don't think he realised it should have been flapjack and not toffee!

I have never been able to make flapjack in my life until I was given the recipe below. It either fell apart or came with a dental health warning. Honestly, how can it be so difficult to melt stuff and pour it in?

Anyway, I make the recipe below quite regularly now and it has always worked perfectly for me. Took some in to work yesterday and the vultures loved it. I only make HALF the quantity below, or it would be huge, and I use a 9" square pan.

Yesterday's I added a couple of spoons of powdered ginger and some chopped up dried apricots to the oats before I mixed them in. Delicious! I have squeezy bottles of condensed milk, so you can just use the bit you need.

M.

"Sickliest flapjack in the world(TM)"

300g Butter
340g light soft brown sugar
4 heaped tbsps golden syrup
1/2 397g tin of condensed milk
500g rolled oats can be cheap ones.

Preheat oven to 160C
Line a baking sheet (swiss roll tin is ideal) with baking parchment - doesn't need to be neat, or even greased as long as you use parchment.
Put sugar, butter and syrup into a pan over a medium heat, stirring constantly to stop it catching. Make sure butter is melted,
but don't worry if the mixture is separated.
Take pan off the heat, pour in condensed milk. Stir until combined.
Stir in rolled oats.
Empty mixture into lined baking tin - roughly distribute it evenly - it levels out pretty well if roughly in the right place -
certainly no need to press it down.
Put in the middle of the oven for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
Allow to cool in the tin
Cut into pieces. Small ones, in an attempt to make it go further

That looks pretty much like my recipe. I find the secret is not to let the mixture boil much if at all, that's what turns it into toffee!

Thanks for the tip Lucydogs, I've never attempted it before and wondered why it went like toffee. I saw it bubbling in the oven and thought that's what it should do!

Next batch will be boiled less:)

I haven't made Flapjacks for years but I once went through a phase of making them regularly. One thing I found was the quality of the oats used. If I used general porridge oats they turned out more chewy, I think that was because they were more floury. If I used Jumbo Oats from the health food shop they were less floury and more inclined to be crispier. So I would look into the flouriness of the oats you use.

I also used lashings of ginger, the more the merrier, also sultanas or raisins. According to my best recipe, flapjacks are the direct descendant of the original Gingerbread which was originally made from dry bread pounded with ginger, liquorice, aniseed, pepper and honey, moistened with ale or claret, and covered with gold leaf.

I make flapjacks a lot and never bake them in the oven, I use butter, half and half golden syrup and treacle, brown sugar, pinch of salt, I melt these all together making sure the sugar is melted, then add the rolled oats and some dried fruit, mix well and put it in a tray and allow to set.

It bubbles a bit in the oven, but my recipe has the butter and syrup etc melted in a pan first, and it's then that you only want it melted, not boiling. Once you've melted it and added the oats it goes in the oven for a bit. I can dig out my recipe for you if you want?

Yes please if you would.

I've had difficulty finding a recipe in my books.

I've always had trouble making it too - got my recipe from the lady who does cricket teas and it's worked really well each time I've made it;-

12 oz butter
9 oz demerara sugar
9 oz syrup
1lb 8 oz rolled oats

Melt butter, sugar and syrup in pan, when melted add oats and mix well.

Put is swiss roll tin lined with parchment paper and cook on middle shelf, gas mark 5 for 25 mins.  Mark cutting lines shortly after cooking - enjoy....

Well that's all given me a lot to think about what with the condensed milk, not using the oven etc.  However a shorter cooking time at a lower temperature seems to be a common theme.

A period of experimentation will now follow.

Many thanks to all contributors.

PS Why do cookery books tell such lies?

Perhaps you can tell us which recipe works best for you...

I had a bit of a brain wave today in the ( not so ) supermarket, christmas mince meat flapjacks !, so i bought a jar of sainsbury's finest and lobed the whole jar into the flap mix...YUM YUM.

Update please :) :) :)

I used Ells-Bells recipe and adapted it a bit to what I had in :-
12 oz butter ( I used Marg)
9 oz demerara sugar
9 oz syrup (Asda Basic Golden Syrup I had in as use it in cakes)
1lb 8 oz rolled oats (Asda Basic bought to warm for the chickens and ducksd on a cold day that we havnt had yet!!!)

So a really cheap version and everyone loves them :) :)
Lea :) :)