Advice please on HM flapjacks

trolleyrun

Hi all,

I thought I'd try dipping into your vast knowledge of baking
I'm thinking of making some flapjack type snacks. I've made baked oatmeal before, but have lost the recipe and it was terribly unhealthy anyways (lots of butter and sugar).

Now, the recipe would have to be gluten free, sorry. I've got GF oats, honey, agave nectar (sugar/sweetener substitute), cinnamon, butter/olive oil and will be buying eggs later today.

I'm not good at baking, so a bit hesitant on experimenting (don't want to waste anything). I also have sunflower seeds, baking soda, baking powder etc.

Any tips and recipes or links will be gratefully received. Thank you

lucylollipop

Hi

I make a simple flapjack with my students at school - the recipe we use is this:

350g Oats

175g Butter

175g Sugar

175g Golden Syrup

100g Dried Fruit

All of the butter, sugar and syrup goes into a saucepan over a middle heat and is melted and stirred together. The oats and fruit are waiting in a bowl, and as soon as the heated mixture is ready it's poured over, mixed together, and popped into a baking tray and baked for 20-25 minutes at 180/GM4.

I'm not sure how the honey etc would compare to the golden syrup - I think it would make something much less "sticky" and more biscuity? Hopefully someone else will know more!

However, if you want something healthier, I can't imagine a flapjack based recipe doing it for you - there's a lot of sugars and fats in that recipe!

tuttifruiti20

I agree with Lucy that it is going to be difficult to find a recipe that doesn't have lots of fat in it. I'll be keenly keeping my eye on this thread though for an answer - hope you get one soon!

Justamum

lucylollipop wrote: »

The oats and fruit are waiting in a bowl, and as soon as the heated mixture is ready it's poured over, mixed together, and popped into a baking tray and baked for 20-25 minutes at 180/GM4.

I find it easier to use a big pan, then pour the dry ingredients into the pan to mix them.

lucylollipop wrote: »

I'm not sure how the honey etc would compare to the golden syrup - I think it would make something much less "sticky" and more biscuity? Hopefully someone else will know more!

Honey is just liquid sugar with a different flavour (bee spit :rotfl:), so it will have the same effect as syrup.

Mrs_Bones

I just tend to use normal recipes and substitute what I need to make the gluten free. One of my favourite flapjack recipes is Apricot flapjacks which I'll put below, but all I did with that was use gf oats in place of normal. When using dried fruit most are ok but like everything else it's always best to check as some are rolled in flour as part of the drying process so are not GF. I keep threatening to buy a dehydrator to try and do my own.

Going back to the OP my recipe isn't exactly healthy as it still uses sugar and butter etc., but having a quick google I found loads of sugar free recipes for flapjacks using honey as a substitute, going to have to try some of them as I love honey. There were also some that used oil instead of butter which were suitable for those on a vegan diet. Hope that helps.

Apricot Flapjacks
150g butter
5 tbsp Demerara sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
200g GF porridge oats
handful of finely chopped dried apricots

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas 5. Grease and line a shallow 17x26 cm b baking tin. Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and melt over medium-low heat. Stir in the oats and apricots, Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, and cut into slices while still warm.

Tish_P

I think the low fat flapjack is a mythical beast! Honey makes a more brittle but very tasty flapjack - you can use half honey half syrup for a compromise.

My recipe is similar to the others above, but in larger quantities: melt together 200g butter, 200g soft brown sugar, 2tbs golden syrup. Stir in 400g oats (dried fruit, nuts, seeds or spices can replace some of the oats).
Push into a greased or lined 8" square tin and bake at 200 deg C for 20-25 minutes until bubbling. Cool a bit, mark into squares, let cool completely.

trolleyrun

Thanks everybody. It looks like I'm going shopping, haha. Need to get butter, sugar, syrup and dried fruits. Who needs healthy anyways, right? :rotfl:

I'll do some experiments and if I discover something genius I'll let you all know

trolleyrun

I've been to the shops and got various bits for baking. Who knew the baking aisle could be so entertaining? I'll try some baking tomorrow and will let you all know how I get on. Hopefully I can come up with something remotely healthy