Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Mash the bananas with a fork.
3 overripe bananas
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a low heat and stir in the syrup.
70 g unsalted butter, 3 tablespoon golden syrup
Stir in the mashed bananas, the porridge oats and the vanilla essence.
3 overripe bananas, 250 g oats, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Line a baking tray with baking paper or a greasproof liner (not foil) and press the mixture firmly into the tray. Use the back of a spoon to level it out and press firmly into the corners. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the edges are just beginning to brown.
Notes
Ingredient Notes
Oats - fine rolled porridge oats rather than jumbo oats will hold together better.
Butter - use an unsalted butter
Bananas - bananas with darker marks on their skins are sweeter and softer and work best in this flapjack recipe.
Golden Syrup - a thick syrup that holds the flapjacks together well.
Vanilla Essence - you can leave this out if you wish but the flavour goes well with bananas.
Variations
You can easily add some other flavours to your banana oatmeal bars such as :-
Chocolate Chips
Chopped Hazelnuts, walnuts or pecans
Chopped unsalted peanuts
Seeds such as sunflower or pumpkin seeds
Almond flakes
Glace cherries
Dried fruit
Dried dates
Dried cranberries
Only use around 50g / 20z in total of additional ingredients to avoid altering the ratio between wet and dry ingredients.
Storage
Banana flapjacks are best stored in the fridge so that they stay firm. You can also store them in an air-tight container in a cupboard but they may break apart more easily. They will keep for 7 days in the fridge. I find in Winter, they are fine stored in a cupboard, but in Summer, they need to go in the fridge.You can freeze flapjacks for 2 -3 months. Cut them up first into squares and freeze them in a single layer. Defrost them at room temperature.