Flapjack (oat bar)

For calorie-rich snack bars, see energy bar.

Flapjacks

A flapjack is a sweet tray-baked oat bar made from rolled oats, butter, brown sugar and golden syrup. This dish is found in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, and is also found in Australasia, but known as a 'muesli bar'. In other countries including Canada, the United States, and South Africa, flapjack refers to a form of pancake.

Overview

Flapjacks with added dried fruit

In the UK and the Republic of Ireland, a flapjack is a baked bar,^[1] cooked in a flat oven tin and cut into rectangles, made from rolled oats, fat (typically butter), brown sugar and usually Golden syrup.^[2] As well as being baked at home, they are widely available in shops, ready-packaged, often with extra ingredients such as chocolate, dried fruit, nuts, yoghurt and toffee pieces or coatings, either as individual servings or full unsliced trayfuls. They are usually an alternative to a biscuit (cookie) or cake, and textures range from soft and moist to dry and crisp.^[1] Because of the high levels of fat and calories in traditional recipes, some 'diet' versions are available with lower fat and calorie content. Similar products are known in Australia as muesli bars or simply 'a slice'. Similar products in North America are Hudson Bay Bread and granola bars.^{[citation needed]}

History

The Oxford English Dictionary records the word flapjack as being used as early as the beginning of the 17th century, but at this time it seems to have been a flat tart or pan-cake.^[1] Shakespeare refers to flapjack in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, but this is one of the many anachronisms in his historical plays and does not suggest that he thought it was a middle eastern dish, merely a common English dessert of the time:

"Come, thou shant go home, and we'll have flesh for holidays, fish for fasting-days, and moreo'er puddings and flap-jacks, and thou shalt be welcome."

Act II Scene I

Later, flapjack would be used to describe something similar to an apple flan, but it is not until 1935 that the word is first used to describe a food made of oats.^[1] While in the UK this usage has mostly superseded earlier recipes, in North America, "flapjack" still refers to pancakes.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} 1,001 Foods to Die For, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2007, p. 866, ISBN 0740770438, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ptZgNoobsyUC&pg=PA866 
2. ^ Davidson, Alan; Jaine, Tom; Vannithone, Soun (2006) [1999], The Oxford Companion to Food (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 306, ISBN 0-19-280681-5