How to make Honey Flapjacks

Honey flapjacks are perfect for a sweet tea-time treat, filling snack or tasty dessert. This deliciously moist and chewy honey flapjack recipe is a doddle to make and are a lot tastier than anything you can buy in the supermarket.

This simple flapjack recipe uses a lot of honey and the taste is much yummier than the recipes using a smaller amount of honey along with refined sugars. 

To make honey flapjacks, you will need:

• 250g Raw Honey
• 150g Unsalted Butter
• 50g Coconut Oil
• ½ tsp Sea Salt
• 250g Rolled Oats
• 150g Rye Flakes
• 50g Dessicated Coconut

• A medium sized saucepan
• A good sized mixing bowl
• A baking tray about 20x30cm or 8x12in
• A wooden spoon and plastic spatula/fish slice or something similar to mix and spread your ingredients.

Time to make and bake: 30-45 mins.

I'm ready, lets get baking!

1: First things first, lets get the oven on!

We want to Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 or 180C, if you have a fan oven then lower it down to around 160C. It should be nicely up to temperature by the time you pop your flapjacks in, which isn't going to be long!

2: Next get your tray prepared.

The best method is to line the tray with non-stick lining or parchment paper, which is by far my preferred option. If you don't have any lining paper then just give the tray a good grease with some butter or coconut oil and you should be fine. I have also had success using greased baking foil too.

3: Mix the dry ingredients.

 
Put the rolled oats, rye flakes, dessicated coconut and salt into your mixing bowl and give them a good stir around. I do this until the coconut looks fairly evenly dispersed through the mix.

4: Combine and heat the wet ingredients.

Next put the butter, honey and coconut oil into the saucepan and heat gently on the hob, stirring occasionally. When the mix starts to bubble slightly, and all the butter and coconut oil has fully melted into the honey, it's ready to be added to the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.

5: Transfer the warm contents of the saucepan into the mixing bowl.

Carefully pour the melted ingredients over your dry ingredients in the mixing bowl. Mix it all together until you get one big sticky mess and all the oats and rye are fully covered without any dry bits, leave no stone unturned!

6: Add to your baking tray.

 
Spread the mixture evenly and try to push it down fairly hard into the tray with the back of the spoon or spatula, this will help it hold together and stop you ending up with a pile of crumbs. If there are air gaps in the mixture it will give you a nice texture but it will also make the flapjacks too crumbly and there's a real danger of them being too fragile to handle after baking. When the mix is pushed down in the tray evenly and nice and smooth on top you can pop the tray onto the middle shelf of the oven.

7: Bake for around 20 mins.

In a gas oven it's a good idea to rotate the tray half way through for a nice even bake. The fully baked flapjacks will be browning a little around the edges of the tray, with an even light golden colour across the middle. They should still feel a little soft while still hot.

8: Cut and allow to cool.

When they are ready, remove the tin from the oven and leave the tray to cool for about 10 minutes. At this point they will still be too warm to remove from the tin but it's the perfect time cut the flapjack into squares. I use a large knife and push down into the flapjack to create a clean cut, this works better than drawing through the flapjack which can lead to tearing and rough edges. They will smell delicious but don't be tempted to try them yet, it's important to let them cool fully so they firm up and don't fall to pieces when you remove them from the tray. If you are baking in the evening you can even put them overnight in the fridge to make sure they are nice and firm for the morning.

When they are fully cooled, you should be able to remove them fairly easily from the tray with a spatula/fish slice.

Some notes on the ingredients:

I recommend our Original Vitamin Raw Honey but you can use any honey you may already have. Coconut oil can be quite expensive, I use Asda's own brand 'cold pressed extra virgin coconut oil' which is good quality and much less expensive than some of the name brands, it's also 100% raw and organic. Dessicated coconut can be easily found in the bakery aisle of any supermarket but you might need to source the Oats and Rye flakes from your local health food shop. I recommend large chunky organic oats over porridge oats if you can get them.

These sound fantastic but...

I don't like the taste or texture of coconut

It's possible to make simpler, but still tasty, honey flapjacks by leaving out the dessicated coconut and coconut oil. Your flapjacks will be different but still have all of the oaty, honey goodness.

I can't eat dairy, can I use something else other than butter?

Of course, just replace the butter with your usual non-dairy spread. I have had good results with Flora Buttery, which is a fully plant based product but it still adds a nice buttery taste to the flapjacks.

I'm not sure if I like Rye flakes

I think this is one of the ingredients that make these flapjacks stand out and gives them a unique and interesting taste and texture. But if you aren't convinced or can't find them easily, simply leave them out and use 400g of Rolled Oats instead.

I'm wondering what else could I add to these flapjacks? 

Go wild! I would recommend simply replacing the 50g of dessicated coconut with 50g of something else. Broken walnut or pecan pieces, crushed pistachios, unsalted peanuts, plump sweet raisins, juicy sultanas, pieces of crystallised ginger or any other dried fruits and nuts that take your fancy. You are only limited by your own imagination!