In the UK, flapjack is a teatime favourite; a sweet, chewy bar made from rolled oats, butter, and golden syrup. Classic recipes often have a high sugar and fat content, but I stumbled across a “healthier” formula that strikes the perfect balance of sweetness against a slightly sour bite from the berries.
The BBC recipe claimed to be “slightly more healthy than normal, with a bit less butter and syrup, ” calling for one egg to bulk out the liquid element. At first, I thought it was odd, but the final result was faultless; a week later, the last flapjack bar from my first batch had the same freshly-baked, chewy texture. I didn’t follow any quirky storage hacks, relying on a tin lined with a clean cotton tea towel to keep the flapjack bars fresh.
The original recipe calls for dried fruit (50g cranberries, 50g raisins, and 50g dried apricots), but I doubled everything to make a larger batch I could slice into bars and substituted some frozen berries in place of apricots and cranberries (my local supermarket had run out).
If you have them, I’d recommend the combination of cranberries and raisins; the cranberries give the sweet oaty mixture a lovely sourness. However, it is the eggs and frozen berries that make this recipe a cut above any others I have tried.
Whisked egg folded into the mixture creates a lovely soft bake, while the frozen berries are a pleasant (and colourful) surprise in every bite. I use frozen mixed berries, picking out the strawberries to put back in the bag as I go.
This recipe is very versatile. You can use 300g of any dried fruits you like; just be sure to chop them if they are in large pieces. Add a handful of chopped nuts, and keep the seeds varied. I used Lidl’s sunflower, linseed, hemp and golden seed mix, plus, a sprinkling of chia seeds for an unbeatable crunch.
Flapjack recipe
Ingredients (18 bars)
- Oil, for greasing
- 200g butter, cubed
- 200g golden syrup
- 100g mixed seeds, such as pumpkin, sunflower, linseed, and chia
- 200g mixed dried fruit
- 100g frozen berries
- 500g jumbo porridge oats
- Two free-range eggs, beaten
First, preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas six. Next, prepare a baking tin (32cm) or your favourite dish by greasing it with oil or butter.
Line the base and sides of the tin with baking parchment.
Chop up the butter and add it to a saucepan over low heat. Mix the syrup into the melted butter using a wooden spoon.
Once melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the fruit, seeds, and oats. Whisk your eggs in a cup and add them to the mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and press until well flattened. You can use a metal teaspoon to compact the mix down. This is very important to ensure that the oats stay firm enough to cut when baked.
Bake the flapjacks for 18 to 20 minutes until golden and lightly browned around the edges.
Use a knife to score the flapjack into 16-18 bars, depending on how big you want them, but don’t cut all the way through.
Leave until cold, then cut the flapjack with a sharp knife using the lines you made earlier.
Store in an airtight container. Layer with baking parchment to separate the layers of the bars, if required.