Flipped for Flapjacks

The Guinness has gone but the oat flapjacks remain.... I take that back, I highly recommend flapjacks plus Guinness for dessert tonight. I've been staring down photos of oaty Irish flapjacks for years and finally baked a tray of them for an Irish-themed St. Paddy's day potluck and now I can't stop making them. And giving them away, and now more people are hooked and it's gotten out of control. So I'm posting this "recipe" so I can be free of the torment of it all. Think carefully before you make these. Please.

Probably, if you're Irish or British, you'd think these "tray-baked" oat bars about as exciting as a Little Debbie snow-ball, but they fit in perfectly with my adoration of peasant food that's not trying to be anything other than what it is. Crunchy, grainy, and oh so simple. Sort of, you'll have to tinker with what I give you because I don't measure. Sorry.

Flapjacks just out of the oven, all nice and caramel-y.

Cut them while they're still warm. A pizza wheel works better than a polka-dot knife. 

This is not flapjacks. It's my niece's brand new beautiful baby girl. I brought the new dad and mom flapjacks to munch on while they hung out in the hospital. 

Crunchy Flapjacks ... Gluten-free Oat-y Bars

Preheat oven to 350 and lay a piece of parchment onto a 1/4 size baking tray
Into a saucepan, melt 1 stick butter
Add a glug of golden syrup or light corn syrup or agave or honey.... about 3 Tablespoons
Stir in a scant 1/2 cup sugar (I use less, see below)
And 2 cups old-fashioned thick oats and a pinch of salt
Spread the mixture onto the parchment paper evenly and bake until the mixture is bubbly and dark caramel colored. Start checking at 12 minutes.
Remove parchment with hot flapjacks from pan to a board and let them set up a minute before cutting into small squares while still hot. Or you can let them cool and break them into rustic pieces.

Tinkering options:
Substitute nuts and seeds for equal amounts of the oats. Pumpkin, sesame, sliced almonds, coconut. Or just leave the recipe as is and sprinkle sesame seeds and/or thin sliced almonds on top when flapjacks have baked about halfway. It will be time to sprinkle when they begin to get bubbly.

You can decrease the sugar to 1/3 cup, but they might not stick together, so up the syrup a Tbs. or two.

Drizzle with bittersweet chocolate if you must.

Butter .... needs to stay the same or they won't hold together. Yes, they're fattening. Cut them small and you get to eat more!