Servings: 16
1/2 cup (115 grams) salted or unsalted butter
1/2 cup (95 grams) light brown sugar
1/4 cup (85 grams) golden syrup or honey or maple syrup
2 1/3 cups (about 220 grams) quick-cooking (1-minute) oats
Flaky sea salt
2/3 cup (115 grams) semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips (optional)
Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8×8-inch baking pan with parchment paper. In a medium-sized pot, melt butter with brown sugar, golden syrup, and a few pinches of flaky sea salt (omit if using salted butter) together over medium-high heat. Once bubbles form, simmer for one minute, then stir in oats off the heat. Spread in pan in an even layer and baked bars for 20 to 25 minutes, until deeply golden at edges. (Deeply golden bars have much more of a caramel-y flavor than pale ones.)
If you’d like to add chocolate, let them rest in their pan on a cooling rack for 3 to 4 minutes before sprinkling the chips all over, then waiting 5 minutes before spreading them in a single layer.
You can cool the flapjacks at room temperature but it goes faster (especially setting the chocolate) in the fridge. However, flapjacks taste best at room temperature, where they’re still stretchy and tender, so you want to keep them in an airtight container at room temperature. They keep for a week.