Recipe | Chewy chocolate oat squares

Chewy chocolate oat squares: a tasty mix of flapjack and cake

This week’s recipe comes from GoodtoKnow. I’ve haven’t tried a mixture of flapjack and cake before, but this recipe produces a chocolatey treat with an incredibly moreish texture. I made one significant change to the original recipe: I put all the chocolate on top rather than inside the oat squares.

Ingredients (makes 16 to 32 chewy chocolate oat squares)

75 g / 2.6 oz butter (at room temperature)
175 g / 6.2 oz soft brown sugar
125 g / 4.4 oz chocolate runny honey
3 medium eggs (I used 3 large and it didn’t cause any problems!)
125 g / 4.4 oz oats
175 g / 6.2 oz plain flour
0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda (aka baking soda)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
60 g / 2.1 oz white chocolate and 60 g / 2.1 oz milk chocolate, chopped into small chunks
40 g / 1.4 oz white chocolate and 40 g / 1.4 oz milk chocolate for melting

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/ 160 degrees C fan/ gas mark 4/ 350 degrees F.

Line a deep baking tray with greaseproof baking paper. My tin measures 24 x 20 x 4 cm (approx. 9.5 x 8 x 2 inches). The original recipe calls for a 30 x 24-cm tin (approx. 12 x 9.5 inches).

Put the butter, brown sugar and runny honey into a bowl and mix together until smooth.

Add the eggs and stir through until combined.

In another bowl, sieve together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder. Add these dry ingredients and the oats to your butter, sugar honey and egg mixture. Stir until fully combined and an even chocolate colour.

Pour the mixture into the tin and spread out to form an even layer.

Bake for 25 – 35 minutes. The original recipe says 35 minutes, but after 25 minutes I inserted a skewer into the centre of the chewy chocolate oat squares and it came out clean. I turned the oven off and left the tray in the oven for another 5 minutes. Exactly how long you need to bake these for will depend on your oven! Leave to cool completely in the tin.

Take the chocolate oat slab out of the tin and put on a cutting board. You can now decorate the top with anything you like: icing, chocolate, sprinkles, nuts… I went with white and milk chocolate.

Melt 40 g of white chocolate and 40 g of milk chocolate (you can do this is heat proof bowls over a pan of hot water or use the microwave) and drizzle over the top of the chocolate oat slab.

Chop 60 g white and 60 g milk chocolate into small chunks.

Sprinkle the chocolate chunks over the top of the chocolate oat slab. Wait for the chocolate to cool and set, then slice into as many chewy chocolate oat squares as you like.