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I've been pushing the limits of my culinary skills by making flapjacks. I followed a recipe from GCN that uses sunflower oil instead of the usual butter. I used rapeseed oil (cos it's what we had in the cupboard) and was left with a tray of gravel - tasty, and rather oily, but gravel. Not much use for a riding snack. I tried another recipe with coconut oil. It stayed together but I'm not convinced about the health aspects of coconut oil (I tend to high cholesterol) and they were still a bit .. oily.
So, chefs of Singletrack - what do you use instead of butter, and how do you keep your flapjacks in one piece?
Coconut oil is the traditional substitute for butter - use the refined stuff, it's a bit less oily and less coconutty.
You can use peanut or almond butter too but then they'll taste peanutty or almondy.
Why the need to avoid butter?
Anyway, my flapjack recipe, which has met with pretty much universal approval, is as follows:
15oz Oats
9oz butter (so, a block)
6oz sugar
6oz syrup
Any additional fillings you might like, or not (good handful of dried fruit, teaspoon of dried ginger, whatever you fancy)
I’m not convinced about the health aspects of coconut oil (I tend to high cholesterol) and they were still a bit .. oily.
It's oil, its not really very good for you in any significant amount, just like any other oil or fat.
A little oil or fat is good, moderation is good, flapjack requires neither of those things. (along with massive amounts of sugar and golden syrup) it's nice and tasty but it's never going to be anything but not very good for you.
Coconut oil or something else which sets at room temperature and has enough solids in it is what you need if there's a good reason to avoid the butter, also if you're having trouble getting it to set, more sugar and get it hotter before you mix in the oats. If you don't get the sugar hot enough it won't set.
If you're not wanting to use butter for cholesterol reasons maybe try a recipe that would normally use butter and swap it for one of the benecol type spreads
I tend to put more golden syrup in than recipes recommend and cook more slowly at a lower temperature for a nice gooey flapjack.
Accidental purchase of a bag of figs supplemented this weekends paddling flapjacks. As a figroll lover it's a win. The figgy goo works well. Only caveat - fig flapjacks in high quantity when away from the convenience of a throne and with the extra inconvenience of paddling clothing don't pass muster from day 2 and beyond.
Ooh, I bloomin love a flapjack. I make them at home for the kids and general pack lunches as well as ride snacks. We generally don't buy biscuits at home so they have to pass muster or the natives will get restless.
I usually just use butter, salted, but have been using more coconut butter of late. Doesn't negatively affect the flapjack but they do taste more coconutty as you would expect.
1 measure of butter / coconut oil
1 measure of sugar. Soft brown, sometime blended with a bit of muscavado
2 measures of porridge oats. I use about half rolled oats and half finer, or waz up some rolled if that's what you have.
Golden syrup
bag of mixed seeds ad mixed nuts and or dried fruit etc
I use measures as it can depend on what we have in the kitchen and the size of the baking tray you going to use.
I usually do a 6 oz mix where 1 measure = 6 oz, so, 12 oz of oats.
Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan gently. Do not not allow to get too hot, just melty.
For a 6 oz mix I would add about 5 dessert spoons of syrup.
Measure the oats into a bowl and add seeds and nuts. I will use a sprinkle of plain flour to aid the binding as well.
Once all the good stuff is melted, poor the oat mix in, stir it all up until no pan is dry and oats are all sticky.
Poor into the baking tray lined with grease proof, pack down firmly and evenly with spatula.
In oven at 180 deg C for 15 minutes.
Once out, leave for 5 - 10 minutes. Then score / cut up the individual flap jacks while still in pan.
Let it all go nearly cold before removing from backing tray.
If you try and get them out of the baking tray too soon you are just grabbing handfuls of granola. Let it all set.
The more patience you have once they're out the oven the better they will be.
Wow - thanks all - now I know everything. In theory anyway.
To reduce butter content but keep the flavour I substitute half the butter for sunflower oil. Butter is approx 30% water so I reduce the oily half by that proportion (by weight).
Eg, 200g butter -> 100g butter + 70g oil.
My mums recipe, which I use, has a mixture of golden syrup and treacle. The results are delicious
I have used apple juice rather than butter, makes a nice chewy bar for taking on ride, maybe not flapjack as such but it is good. Mix oats and apple juice and some golden syrup, put in a layer in a baking tray, put frozen fruit like blueberries or whatever in another layer (I use Tesco mixed imperfect fruit) add more of the oaty apple juice mixture in taop, bake for half an hour or so.
Found my old recipe 🙂
“Gert Lush” Microwave Flapjacks
Makes 24 :: 1.5g fibre/160 calories per flapjack
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
American
Butter or margerine, softened
175 g
6 oz
3/4 cup
Caster sugar
50 g
2 oz
1/4 cup
Soft brown sugar
50 g
2 oz
1/4 cup
Golden syrup
90 ml
6 tbsp
6 tbsp
Salt (optional)
pinch
pinch
pinch
Oats
275 g
10 oz
2 1/2 cups
1 Mix the butter or margerine and sugars and cook on High for 1 minute.
2 Stir in the syrup until warmed through and dissolved. Stir in the salt and oats and mix thoroughly.
3 Press into a greased 18cm/7in microwave dish and cook on high for 5 minutes.
4 Leave to cool slightly, then cut into squares.
Posted 5 years ago
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I got this recipe out of a Tesco magazine. I don't add peanuts or the jam. Really tasty but probably not for those wanting to cut back on sugars
Ingredients
- 75g unsalted butter
- 90g soft brown sugar
- 50g golden syrup
- 50g crunchy peanut butter
- 100g porridge oats
- 30g rice snaps (or more oats)
- 90g dried apricots, chopped
- 40g roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
- 50g strawberry jam
Method
Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180°C, fan 160°C. Grease and line a loose-bottomed, 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.
Heat the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan over a low-medium heat, stirring occasionally, until melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter until melted. Add the oats, rice snaps, apricots and peanuts; mix well.
Spoon the mixture into the tin, pressing down with the back of a spoon to level. Use the end of a wooden spoon to make 10 indentations in the top, being careful not to press all the way through. Fill the recesses with spoonfuls of jam, then smooth over with the back of the spoon. Bake for 20-25 mins until golden, then leave to cool completely in the tin. Once cool, remove from the tin and cut into 16.