Eating all of the Irish Food while Social Distancing: Flapjacks

Hey folks, how are you all holding up while holed up? We are making it work and also, making a lot of crafts, messes, food and DIRTY DISHES! We sent our neighbors a quarantine care package, Emmett’s idea, and they sent us one.  We’ve been going on daily long walks, during which some of us invariably fall asleep. And are basically trying not to lose our just minds like everyone else in the world. THAT struggle is real! Still, we are feeling incredibly lucky for everything we have, especially our health and safety and that of those we hold dear. I am also feeling particularly grateful for all of the kits, crafts and art supplies I’ve squirreled away in various parts of the house, for a rainy day, as well as the foresight to have four kids which is 4X the insanity but also never a dull moment and a friend for everyone.  

Five-year old’s mis en place.

Four active children also means burning through food like nobody’s business. I had no idea how much my family eats. Last week, when I couldn’t find any bread at my local grocery store, in an effort to maintain social distancing, I got out my breadmaker instead of trying to find bread at another store. What I found out was, my kids LOVE fresh bread.  And also, I should have bought more bread flour because one bag only makes about 10 loaves. Thank goodness for the food section at Paddy’s which has provided me with a few bags of oats, coarse whole grain flour, and several baking mixes, including scones, Yorkshire puddings, soda bread and this one, for flapjacks. 

If you are reading this, you probably already know that flapjacks are not pancakes. According to Wikipedia, “In the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, Ireland, and Newfoundland a flapjack refers to a sweet, tray-baked oat bar, most commonly made from rolled oats, butter, brown sugar and golden syrup.” So, not pancakes, though we have also been eating lots of those. 

I’ve used this type of mix in the past and it cannot be easier. All the delicious smells and fresh-baked loveliness of baking from scratch, but easy enough to throw together and do the cleanup in that 30 minutes between conference calls. #workingfromhome 

The directions on the box call for using butter and golden syrup or making them “healthier” by using coconut oil and honey.  Because I am incapable of following directions, even with a mix, I used coconut oil and golden syrup with amazing, coconutty results. Honestly, I have no idea how much 150g of coconut oil is. I could have gotten out my kitchen scale, but I just eyeballed it based on the equivalent 10 tablespoons of butter that would have been required if I went that route. It worked! 

I was not ready for how much I would LOVE these.  They are sort of in the same vein as the chocolate chip cookie brittle I made back in the blissful recent past when “global pandemic” was for Netflix series’.  Thin and crunchy and sweet but not crazy-sweet. I broke it up like brittle, not bothering to cut it in neat bars, because what’s the point? I used a bigger tray than called for, resulting in thin flapjacks, and reduced the cooking time accordingly. The directions were spot on in noting that the flapjacks would be ready once the edges began to brown. I pulled mine out after about 15 minutes.

I was the first one to dig in and once I started it was NOT easy to stop. If not for the kids, I could have, and would have, eaten an entire tray of these in no time. They were all outside playing and sort of forgot that we had made them, so it took a lot of willpower, but I was able to save some for the rest of the family. Once I let the kids try them…well, let me just say, within about 10 minutes I had to hide the container from them. Yes, there was a not-so-small part of me that wanted to make sure there was some left to crumble over my yogurt for breakfast, but also, they were like crazed animals. Flapjacks. Who knew?

Hope you are sheltering in place, happy, healthy and safe. xo