Flapjack (oat bar)
 Flapjacks with added currants | |
| Type | Dessert bar |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Main ingredients | Rolled oats,butter,brown sugar,golden syrup/honey |
Aflapjack(also known as acereal bar,oat baroroat slice) is a bakedbar,[1]cooked in a flat oven tin and cut into squares or rectangles, made fromrolled oats,fat(typicallybutter),brown sugarand usuallygolden syrup.[2]
The snack is similar to the North Americangranola bar.
Varieties
[edit]As well as being baked at home, they are widely available in shops, ready-packaged, often with extra ingredients such aschocolate,dried fruitsuch asglace cherries,nuts, yoghurt andtoffeepieces or coatings, either as individual servings or full unsliced trayfuls. Some flapjacks may containmaple syrup.They are usually an alternative to abiscuitorcake,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.[3]
History
[edit]TheOxford English Dictionaryrecords 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.[1]Shakespearerefers to "flap-jacks" inPericles, Prince of Tyre,but this is one of the manyanachronismsin his historical plays and does not suggest that he thought it was amiddle 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until 1935 that the word is first used to describe a food made of oats.[1]In the United Kingdom, this usage has mostly superseded earlier recipes.
Name
[edit]The food is called a flapjack in the United Kingdom, theIsle of Man,Ireland, andNewfoundland.In other English-speaking countries, the same item is called by different names, such as cereal bar, oat bar or (in Australia and New Zealand) oat slice.
In the United States and Canada, "flapjack" is a widely-known but lesser-used term forpancake.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]
- ^abcd1,001 Foods to Die For,Andrews McMeel Publishing,2007, p. 866,ISBN978-0-7407-7043-2
- ^Davidson, Alan;Jaine, Tom; Vannithone, Soun (2006) [1999],The Oxford Companion to Food(2nd ed.),Oxford University Press,p. 306,ISBN0-19-280681-5
- ^Ginger (2015-02-05)."Flapjacks or Granola Bars – as close to healthy food as it gets, I suppose…".Ginger&Bread.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-08-02.Retrieved2017-09-01.
| Avenaspecies and cultivars | |
|---|---|
| Basic preparations | |
| Culinary usage |
|
| Brands | |
| Related | |
