After the success of recreating British Flapjacks in my kitchen, I wanted to make the flapjack I remember eating the most when I was across the pond. My memory is hazy, but I want to say it was either peanut butter flavored, had a layer of chocolate on top or possibly both. So I decided to cross Rice Krispie Scotcheroos with flapjacks to see if I could come up with a winning recipe.
These bars ought to be sold in America. You heard that from me first.
ingredients.
- 1 c. butter
- ½ c. peanut butter (I used crunchy to give more texture)
- 1 c. packed brown sugar
- ½ c. golden syrup
- ½ tsp. salt
- 4 ⅔ c. quick oats
- 1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 c. butterscotch chips
- vegetable shortening (if needed)
directions.
- Line an 8×8-inch pan with parchment paper (leave some overhang to use as handles) and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a saucepan, heat butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and golden syrup over medium-low heat until butter is melted and sugar dissolved. Stir occasionally.
- Stir in salt and oats and mix until combined. Scrape batter into prepared pan and press down with the back of a spoon or spatula.
- Bake in preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes, until edges are golden brown.
- Cool pan on a wire rack. While cooling, place the chocolate and butterscotch chips in a microwave bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals (stirring after each interval) until the chips have completely melted. If your mixture seizes-up (as mine did), add some vegetable shortening to thin it out. Spread over bars.
- Cool completely. Once completely cool, lift bars out using parchment paper and cut into desired shapes.
For this recipe I doubled the ingredients in the British Flapjacks (all except for the butter, which I left the same but added equal parts crunchy peanut butter) and added a layer of chocolate butterscotch. When assembling before baking, I packed the batter down using all my body weight – I wanted a very thick and dense flapjack.
After removing them from the oven and covering them in chocolate butterscotch, I stuck them in the fridge overnight to firm up the chocolate. (I have little patience for allowing chocolate to firm on its own. It’s like watching paint dry.) The next morning (very early), I brought the flapjacks out of the fridge and allowed them to come to room temperature. Or so I thought.
Using a pizza cutter I had to saw through the square in order to cut the flapjacks into bars. (I got the best ab workout of the year. If you want to avoid an ab workout in the kitchen, make sure these really are at room temperature when cutting!) I cut them into rectangular bars because this is what I remember eating in England. Though I think if I actually tried to eat an entire rectangular bar nowadays I would make myself sick. (I don’t have quite the same appetite I did 12 years ago.)
These bars actually taste exactly as they should – a cross between flapjacks and scotcheroos. Next time I make these I may increase the butter to 1 cup. It was almost as if the wet ingredients didn’t quite cover the dry ingredients when I mixed them together. You can’t really notice this in the finished product but I’d like to see how a moisture soaked oat bar turns out when baked. Besides, adding additional butter makes anything better. Right?
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 