British Flapjacks

 Ingredients

2-1/3 cups rolled oats quick-cooking or old-fashioned, see Recipe Notes

½ cup butter salted or unsalted 

½ cup brown sugar light

¼ cup golden syrup see Recipe Notes 

¼ tsp sea salt flaky

Mix-ins as desired optional, see Recipe Notes

2/3 cup chocolate chips semi- or bittersweet, optional

Instructions

If you’re using American-style old-fashioned rolled oats, chop them in a food process to a medium coarseness (they’ll be closer to the texture you can find in the UK).

Heat oven to 325°F (160°C). Line an 8- × 8-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Try to get all four sides covered so the bars don’t stick when you remove them…you’ll have to do a little bit of parchment-paper origami, but trust me, it’ll make things easier later.

In a medium-sized pot, melt the butter with the brown sugar, golden syrup, and about ¼ tsp of flaky sea salt (omit if using salted butter) over medium-high heat. Once bubbles form, simmer for one minute, then remove from heat.

Stir in the oats and any desired mix-ins until the mixture is completely coated. Press into the pan in an even layer.

Bake the bars for 20 to 25 minutes, until deeply golden at edges. The longer cooking time will yield a deeper flavored bar, but it won’t be quite as soft and sticky as with a shorter baking time.

If you’d like to add a chocolate topping (and who wouldn’t?), let the bars rest in their pan on a cooling rack for 3 to 4 minutes before sprinkling the chips all over. Wait 5 minutes, then spread the melted chocolate in a even layer using a small offset spatula.

Let the flapjacks cool completely, either at room temperature or in the refrigerator (especially if you added the chocolate chip layer).

Use the parchment paper to slide them out of their pan onto a cutting board and cut them with a serrated knife into 16 squares or into 4 large ones, then cut those quarters diagonally to form 4 triangles.

Store at room temperature in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week (if they last that long!).

Notes

If you can’t find golden syrup, try using honey or maple syrup. Just make sure it’s pure (not adulterated or pancake syrup) because you’ll really taste the flavor.

Rolled oats in the UK vs. the US have different levels of coarseness. American old-fashioned oats are whole, while British oats are smaller and more akin to US quick-cooking oats. If you have old-fashioned oats in your cupboard, just pulse them in a food processor to cut them a little smaller. That will keep the flapjack texture just right.

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