Flapjacks - the British ones

"it's the cellophane-wrapped stalwart of the railway buffet trolley and the conference tea table" Felicity Cloake

It's first recipe time and the next in the River Cottage Handbooks - this one is on cake. Which is not really my forte I have to confess. I'm always nervous about cakes, they end up a bit burnt, like Delia's sticky date and prune one did, sunk and/or uncooked in the middle or just dry and pretty tasteless. Moreover I cannot make up a recipe for a cake, or even a biscuit, as I can with anything else. I always, but always, even if I have made it many times before, have to follow a recipe.

This one, however is written by Pam Corbin, who is as her employer/mentor/friend? Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says is:

"a champion of the art of the possible" Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

He goes on to say in his introduction:

"It's a celebration of home-baking with good, well-sourced ingredients, an argument for the revival of elevenses and four o'clock tea, and acknowledgement of the simple pleasure of offering a cuppa and a slice of something nice to someone you care about."

Which inspired me to go and make myself a cup of coffee and cut a slice of Delia's cake - with some cream - which I have just finished. I did it for myself, but it was just as much a treat. The British are good about such things. There is a vast number of cakes, biscuits, slices in the British baking repertoire - and today's chosen recipe for flapjacks - is one of the first things that many of us cook - Nigel Slater remembers his recipe for Fruit and oat flapjacks as being the first thing he cooked with his mother, and Pam Corbin herself tells that they were also the first thing she cooked as a child.

On the American Frantic Foodie website, a writer called Marisa Ingram fell in love with the book because:

"This book is filled with simple yet supremely tasty baked goods. If you are looking for something fancy, you will need to look elsewhere for it does not put on any airs. It is a book to turn to when you are looking for a slice of comfort – something that can be made quickly and with relatively few ingredients on those days when you are craving a homey treat."

And she quotes the flapjacks as one of her favourite recipes.

I should perhaps say here, that flapjacks are not the first recipe - that's Welsh cakes - but I've written about them before - if you follow that link - so I just turned to the next and ignored the introductory little ones on fillings and toppings.

For myself I'm not at all sure that we ever had flapjacks in our house. I have no idea why - because they are indeed simple. A writer called Andrew Hardwick on a website called Duram Echo tells us that his mother's recipe

"was simply "Melt margarine, sugar & golden syrup in the ratio 2:1:1. Add sufficient porridge oats. Bake with whatever else is being cooked." and sometimes produced a chewy cake, sometimes a brittle one."

'Margerine' shows its wartime origins - today it's butter, sugar and golden syrup. And Zoe Williams, on The Guardian website adds that:

"it hits all the notes: it is wholesome, very simple, you can bake it with children and you can throw any old nonsense in to no obvious ill effect. Plus, it needs no flour, which is great if you can’t get hold of any, and oats are incredibly good value. There is no kitchen alchemy involving things that have a habit of going wrong – no raising agent, no uncertainty from adding an egg."

Before I go on I should perhaps point out that these are not American flapjacks which are a kind of pancake - an American kind of pancake,

I should also tell what I found about origins - which is not much really - summarised by a brief post on Wikipedia:

"The Oxford English Dictionary records the word "flapjack" being used as early as the beginning of the 16th century, although at this time it seems to have been a flat tart. ... but it is not until 1935 that the word is first used to describe a food made of oats."

You'd have to wonder though wouldn't you? I mean they are all such basic ingredients - well the Golden Syrup I suppose is a relatively late invention (1885), but honey would have been available. Surely British peasants were concocting such things in their kitchens - or in the baker's ovens - from much earlier times. Difficult times - something simple to cheer one in order to go on.

But back to Pam Corbin's recipe which I eventually found online via Google Images, not Google itself - which is interesting in itself. Although I did find several websites referencing her recipe. The picture is from the book and is a pretty simple version, although she does give some fancier variations at the end - Raisin and honey, Muesli, Cherry and coconut, Walnut and maple syrup. She also apparently has a recipe for Salted caramel flapjacks on The Guardian website - but no picture for this one can be found.

Her recipe is indeed simple, but strays slightly from the really basic by including desiccated coconut and specifying demerera sugar.

Felicity Cloake is the perfect guide to Perfect flapjacks although 'perfect' is a bit subjective as she says in her introduction:

"There are two principal schools of flapjack: the chewy, and the crunchy. I'm firmly in the latter camp, but I'm prepared to concede the merits of the heartier sort, as long as it doesn't stray into stodge territory, so it's with some relief that I happen upon the information that the two can be made to the same recipe; it's the cooking method that determines the texture."

The method being how deep your baking tin is and the temperature at which you cook it. And also some people think the kind of oats is important with most of them plumping for porridge oats rather than jumbo ones. Or as one cook said you could just whiz them in your food processor. And Zoe Williams - in her 10 different recipes didn't seem to think it mattered at all.

To end - a few variations from here and there - February flapjacks - Zeb Bakes; Marmalade flapjacks - Bryony's Kitchen - and two from Jamie - a Christmassy one which he calls Easy flapjacks - for which he says: "I’m adding festive dried fruit and nuts, crunchy puffed rice cereal and a sprinkling of chocolate to make them extra special for Christmas" and his Ultimate flapjacks - which are a bit simpler, but also include dried fruit and nuts but no golden syrup - honey instead I think.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Some Americans though described them as a kind of granola bar - and perhaps they are. They certainly look a bit like them. Maybe I should give them a go some time. After all oats are good for the cholesterol aren't they and mine certainly needs looking after - I like butter, cheese and cream too much.

I'll finish with this quote which sort of takes me back to the 'cuppa and a slice of something nice', that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall talked about:

"Love is when you have a really amazing piece of cake, and it’s the very last piece, but you let him have it." E. Lockhart

Interesting that it's a she giving it up for a he. I wonder if it was the other way around that it would actually happen?

POSTSCRIPT

For my lunch today I had a small amount of pasta to use up, so I added a goodly dollop of my leftover hummus, a tiny bit of sambal oelek, and a drop or two of olive oil and lemon juice before heating in the microwave and then sprinkling with Parmesan. And you know I was pleasantly surprised. It had a nutty sort of texture. I was dubious about the whole premise of pasta hummus if you remember, and quite prepared to throw the whole thing away. But yes, it was nice, which bodes well for tonight's experiment of leftover roast chicken, hummus, cream and mushrooms. A kind of fricasée I think. With boiled potatoes tossed in a creamy hummus and herb sauce I think.

YEAR GONE BY

August 14

2025 - Nothing

2024 - What I have learnt from making quiche

2023 - Watermelon, feta, mint

2022 - Winter jam

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Varieties of lemon tart

2018 - A mouli in my cooking life

2017 - The dilemma of a box of lemons

2016 - Cauliflower cheese