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I have been trying to find a low fat/butter flapjack recipe and have made the following observations.

The majority of recipes call for flapjack oats to be mixed with melted butter and/or other fats before being baked in the oven. The fats assist in the cooking and the end product texture, making the flapjack softer and more moist. Using less or no fat in the baking process makes the end result flat, hard, and possibly undercooked.

Would it be feasible to first precook the flapjack oats and other dry ingredients in a small amount of water on the stove first, to soften the ingredients and incorporate water/moisture/other liquids before adding a reduced amount of melted butter and finishing it off in the oven? Would that achieve similar results and avoid the flapjack being overall hard, dense and not chewy?

Diu.Lei
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    Flapjacks / pancakes are a type of quickbread, as are muffins. And there are ‘low fat’ muffin recipes that replace much of the oil (1/2 up to 2/3) with applesauce or other puréed fruit. I would be more inclined to try that as a alteration, but you may need to take a few iterations to dial in the exact replacement – Joe Mar 02 '24 at 14:30
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    @Joe I suspect that the asker is talking about the UK flapjacks (oats, syrup, butter, baked in the oven), not the US flapjacks aka pancakes? – Stephie Mar 02 '24 at 15:46
  • @Stephie oops. I had forgotten that was one of the problem terms. Someone even added it to https://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/784/67 – Joe Mar 05 '24 at 16:03

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Having made something like that as baby snacks (little more than baked porridge), you could end up with something chewy, but not in a good way, and without much flavour.

I tried a few recipes and they always had a rubbery texture. If they end up hard, they're overcooked.

It may be possible to find a sweet spot but it would take quite a lot of experimenting for what would probably turn out to be a fairly small reduction in the fat content, because the butter/sugar combination is essential to good flapjack. See also commercial "healthy" flapjacks, that are always dry.

Chris H
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  • Yes, you can use less fat, or use olive oil, more egg, or applesauce. But fat has the most flavor, so you won't find satisfaction on the plate. – Yosef Baskin Mar 05 '24 at 20:09