Making flapjack

I’ve just made some flapjack, and had to check back over my blog to find a recipe… all others seem to have vanished… This is what i found from a couple of years ago:

My dear mother-in-law was not only a school cook, but she became the chief cook… not exactly sure what her title was, but I have inherited the recipe book issued by Surrey County Council Education Committee.

It is quite impressive the care that the cooks are instructed to give to the food they are cooking, and the variety of recipes included. there was obviously a real desire to give variety as well as decent wholesome meals, and some of the meals are not at all what you might expect. As well as all you would expect, roly-polys, hot-pots, puddings and pies, there are plenty of salads (Vichy, golden and winter for example) and hot dishes such as Provençal fish pie, Spanish meatballs, pear condé and veal and ham galantine, goulash and Wiltshire porkies… Wiltshire porkies? Sausage meat coated in batter and deep fired – I bet they were popular! There are twenty-two different biscuit recipes, flans and tarts, ‘home-made’ ketchup and mayonnaise.

I do not have a very sweet tooth, but one thing I really love is flapjack! here is the school dinner recipe for flapjack (scaled down!)

• 1 lb rolled oats
• 1 lb butter or margarine
• 5 oz Demerara sugar
• 5 oz golden syrup
• a pinch of salt

1. melt the fat and add the syrup and heat together for a few minutes
2. add the other ingredients and mix well
3. press into a greased tin (I usually line my tins with grease-proof paper or baking parchment)
4. bake at 375º F, 180ºC, gas mark 4 for 30-35 minutes until firm
5. cut into squares or slices and turn out of tin while still a little warm