Every place that I have visited has what I like to call its “tourist foods.” You know, like if you go to New York, you’re going to get a slice of pizza or a hot dog from a street vendor. And if you visited Switzerland, you wouldn’t pass through without savoring some milk chocolate. Even though it is may be on a plane, it is still probably the best chocolate you will have ever had in your life. Sidenote, the Zurich airport was so class and clean. Can’t get OVER it.
Anyway, this post is not about Switzerland or New York. Mostly, it is about Scotland, and a little about chocolate. Scotland has about four tourist foods, as far as I can tell. Haggis, shortbread, whiskey, and flapjacks. If you want to know about haggis, and I assure you, you DO want to know about haggis, click here.
I tried it. Not as bad as you might think. My friend Christy thought it was the best thing ever (and it was definitely not the pig testicles that this pretty thang ate in France once). I should do a post about shortbread, but I haven’t actually made that yet. And whiskey? You can find out about that yourself.
But what we are really talking about here are flapjacks. They are not pancakes, which is what I thought when I first heard the term. They are more like caramel-flavored granola bars. They get softer as they sit because of all the brown sugar. Man, I do love brown sugar. I can’t help it. Everything about it is more excellent than white sugar. Some recipes contain no flour, but this one does. And also, I’ve added in a number of substitutions in the ingredient list, in case you don’t have golden syrup on hand. It is not super common in the States.
The kitchen was feeling ambitious, so these got dripped, dipped and drizzled until they looked nice. And then a bunch of nice-looking people et them ‘til they were eaten.
Heart,
L
Flapjacks
By School
1 pound 8 ounces butter (or margarine, but don’t even think it!)
1 pound 8 ounces demerra sugar (or brown sugar; I don’t know about the conversion. Sorry.)
1 ½ tablespoons golden syrup (or corn syrup, or high fructose corn syrup, or maple syrup, or honey)
14 ounces oats (any kind will do)
14 ounces self-raising flour
optional additions: cherries, cinnamon, allspice, raisins, what have you
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (170 C). Line two 9×13 inch pans with parchment paper. You could halve this recipe, if you want a smaller amount.
Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a large saucepan. Sift together the flour and oats and stir into the syrup mixture. At this point, you can also stir in any fruit additions and things. If you want to add chocolate chips, wait a bit until the mixture cools so they don’t melt. If you are adding in spices, sift those in with the flour.
Divide the mixture evenly between the two pans. Bake for 25 minutes or until slightly golden. If you would like a more crispy flapjack, increase the heat to 375 degrees (180 C). The baking temperature matters more for the consistency than the baking time with these.
These look so good. Love your blog. It’s really cool. :)