The best flapjacks

Name: The best flapjacks
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 13 min
Total time: 23 min
Yield: 16
Ingredients: 210 g butter, plus a little for greasing; 190 g demerara sugar; 75 g golden syrup; 100 g Waitrose Duchy Organic Jumbo Rolled Oats; 250 g rolled porridge oats; ½ tsp sea salt flakes

The speed at which you can throw together Martha Collison's bake, matched with its moreish nature and the fact that all the ingredients can be found in the store cupboard, means you’re never far from a perfectly baked, syrupy flapjack.

5 out of 5 stars(7) Rate this recipe

Vegetarian

Makes16 squares or 12 bars
CourseCake
Prepare10 mins
Cook13 mins
Total time23 mins
Pluscooling

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Ingredients

210g butter, plus a little for greasing
190g demerara sugar
75g golden syrup
100g Waitrose Duchy Organic Jumbo Rolled Oats
250g rolled porridge oats
½ tsp sea salt flakes

Method

Preheat the oven to 200ºC, gas mark 6 and grease and line a 20x30cm brownie tin with baking parchment.
Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a large, heavybased saucepan. Heat the mixture gently, stirring occasionally, until the butter has completely melted, then remove from the heat. There should still be visible sugar pieces in your mixture.
Mix both oats into the hot sugar and butter, and stir together until completely coated. Turn the mixture into the baking tray and, using the back of a spatula, press it down into an even layer. Sprinkle evenly with the sea salt flakes.
Bake for 13 minutes, or until the top has just started to caramelise and is a light golden colour. The mixture will still look runny and will be bubbling when you remove it from the oven, but will harden as it cools.
Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then score into bars or squares using a sharp knife. Once completely cool, cut into neat pieces. The flapjack will keep in an airtight container for up to 10 days.

Cook’s tip

The right measures
My measurements may seem a little precise at 210g butter and 190g sugar, but as this is for my best flapjacks, it really is worth getting the amounts spot on.

Lemon twist
Fold the zest of 1 lemon through the oat mixture, then drizzle the top of the cooled flapjack with melted white chocolate and allow to set before serving.

Spiced cashew flapjacks
Roughly chop a handful of cashew nuts and stir in with the oats, a little ground cinnamon, ginger and cardamom. Bake as recipe.

Whole v rolled
It’s absolutely fine to make this recipe using 100% porridge oats (these are oats that have been processed to create smaller flakes), but I like to add a portion of whole oats for texture and to boost the oaty flavour. Don’t use solely jumbo oats, however, as they won’t hold together well enough.

Chewy v crunchy
I like my flapjacks syrupy and soft – you should be able to tease them off the paper, but they should have a good squidge to them. If you prefer them crunchier, or want to pack them for a hike or picnic, bake for 5 minutes more.