Fun with flapjacks

For quite a while now, I've wanted to try out a flapjack recipe which I came across in Mary Berry's cookbook (the complete reference is the same as that for the sponge traybake recipe, pp.152-153). My baking grandmother (the Mary Berry of the North) has always made flapjacks and so I decided to have a go myself. How hard could they be...?

Well quite difficult actually, at least much more difficult to get right than I had thought.

The recipe went as follows:

• 225g Margarine (I used butter)
• 225g Demerara Sugar
• 275g Rolled Oats
• Two table spoons of golden syrup

I melted the butter over a low heat, then added the sugar and the golden syrup. I then threw in around 150g (less than the recipe, since at this stage the mixture looked like the right consistency- in retrospect I think I might have added up to 200g, since the flapjacks are rather chewy and sticky without the extra oats). I stirred them all together and then took the pan off the low heat. I spooned the mixture into a greased baking tray (Mary Berry recommends only lightly greasing the tray). I then put the mixture in the oven at 160 degrees centigrade for 35 minutes.

I think I may have greased it too much; in the oven the butter seemed to bubble violently away from under the mixture- although I took the tray out of the oven after the allocated time, the edges were much browner than the middle of the mixture, which still seemed quite moist. Anyway, I left the tray to cool for around 15 minutes (as specified) and then cut the mixture up into twenty five different flapjacks. The most difficult stage involved taking the flapjacks out of the tray. I would recommend leaving the whole mixture to cool for longer (say half an hour) before you try to move the flapjacks, as they become much easier to manoeuvre when cold. Some of the flapjacks actually fell apart while I was transporting them- I found that since they were still relatively warm, I could group the pieces together and reform the flapjack shapes. When left to cool, they more-or-less resembled the original flapjack square.

The mixture before it went in the oven.

So my advice to anyone attempting this recipe is to leave the mixture in the oven for the allocated time BUT do only add a tiny bit of grease to the tray and leave the whole mixture for at least half an hour before you attempt to cut out the flapjacks. I'd also suggest using a pallet knife or similar, since I found the spatula I used was too thick.

The finished product...they lost their shape a little when I tried to lift them out of the tray.