British Flapjacks: A Treat to Accompany Afternoon Tea Anyone?

Wrapping long, golden strings of runny sugary sweetness around a cold, metal spoon stirred up flashbacks of childhood days spooning syrup onto a bowl of hot, gooey, steaming porridge on a winter's morning. It also brought back memories of making flapjacks with my mother who was (is...?) a champion flapjack maker.

I saw a post on Smitten by Britain with a flapjack recipe which made me jump up and instantly gather up my 2 and 3 year old sons and herd them to the kitchen. This week we've made flapjacks two different ways but throwing it all in the mixer together produced a better structure of flapjack than the 'melting butter, sugar and syrup together' method. I don't know why because the latter is how my mum always made them and they were delicious and structurally sound.....

In any case, if you fancy a little something sweet to go with your afternoon tea, I present flapjacks. A real British treat.

Flapjack Recipe
125g soft brown sugar

2 - 3 tbs golden syrup

125g butter

250 g oats (havermout in Dutch)

• Put the sugar, syrup and butter in a mixer. Blast it until combined and add the oats and thoroughly mix. 
• Spoon the mixture into a shallow, greased oven dish and cook for 20 to 30 minutes on 180c. 
• Once it's brown around the edges take it out of the oven.
• Leave it to cool for a few minutes or the flapjack will crumble in to a squillion crumbs but you can already carefully mark pieces with a sharp knife. 
• Once the flapjacks have cooled slightly (and hardened a bit) you can cut and put on a cooling tray.
• Eat with a lovely cup of steaming hot tea.

Bob's your Uncle - an afternoon treat.