simple oat bars AKA Flap Jacks

I've been trying to recreate the oat bars you can get at a well known coffee shop around these parts. I'm usually pretty good at figuring these things out. But with these bars, I haven't been having much luck.

Then miracle upon miracle, one of our preschool moms kindly donated a tin of these lovely little oat bars that she called "Flap Jacks" for us to sell at an improptu bake sale. Ali is from England and at first, when she told me that she had "Flap Jacks" for the sale, I instantly thought, 'Pancakes??" She must have picked up on the strange look on my face because she instantly said something like, "You know...flapjacks? Don't you have these here? What do you call them?"

We call them bars, Ali, my dear and yours are fabulous! I must admit, I fiddled with the amount of ingredients to make them easier for our Canadian and US friends to measure since the amounts were written in weight (ounces) and we generally bake using cups in these parts but the rations are the same. I also added a bit of flax and used succanant (crushed unprocessed brown sugar cane) instead of refined sugar. Oh and whole wheat flour. But that's just me!

I've written the recipe Ali's way and with my changes in parenthesis. Whatever you choose to do, either way the bars will turn out fabulous!

Thanks for the recipe Ali!

Simple Oat Bars AKA Flap Jacks
Recipe By Ali (Preschool Mom) Makes a small pan of bars.

Ingredients:
1 cup margarine or butter (I used Earth Balance spread since our youngest can't have dairy)
1 cup sugar (I used succanant)
2 tablespoons corn syrup
4 cups oats (I used 2 cups old fashioned and 2 cups quick for a different texture)
3/4 cups self-raising flour (I used whole wheat and just a little less than 3/4 cups)
* I also added 1/4 cup flax but that's just me!

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt together margarine, sugar and syrup. Stir in the oats followed by flour (and flax if using)

Put into 11 x 7" tin - AKA baking pan. (You could also use a 9x9")

Cook for 15 minutes until lightly golden.

Cut into squares while still warm but leave until cold before removing from tin.

Enjoy!