OOie chewy flapjacks

Method
Prep:10min  ›  Cook:12min  ›  Ready in:22min 

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C / Gas 5. Place the butter, sugar, golden syrup and salt in a pan. The salt in the mix is important to complement and bring out the flavours of the sweet toffee and creamy nutty oats.
2. Heat the mixture over a low heat, making sure that the mix does not begin to boil or bubble a lot, until it is a smooth liquid and no sugar crystals remain.
3. Once all the sugar is dissolved heat the mixture to a controlled bubble/boil. Do this for roughly 2-3 minutes. The mixture should be slightly more golden than before boiling but not deeply brown. This step gives a more complex toffee flavour to the finished flapjack.
4. Stir in both types of oat a bit at a time. (95% of the time the stated amount of oats is perfect, however it is important to note that some packs of oats may be slightly more absorbent than others and so you may not need to add all the oats). You are looking for a mix which has a firm yet fudgy feel and still has a slightly damp element.
5. Put the flapjack mix into a baking tin lined with tin foil. the flapjacks should be roughly 1-1.5cm in depth but of course you can make them thicker if you choose.
6. Cook the flapjack at 190 degrees C for 12-15 minutes. So that the top is browned. Remove from the oven and cut into as many squares as you like but I find 12 is usually about right. Leave in the tin to cool slightly before removing.

Other ideas

You can make all sorts of variations of this recipe, such as mixed seeds, dried fruit, nuts and/or chocolate chips. Adding chopped bits of toffee or fudge is particularly nice, as is sultanas and lemons. In fact, the world is your oyster!