Healthy gluten free flapjacks are very easy to make, with just 3 everyday ingredients. These gluten free oat bars are soft and slightly chewy, and totally moreish. Enjoy the basic recipe, or add in optional raisins, nuts and seeds as you prefer.
What's so good about these gluten free flapjacks
- Easy. This gluten free flapjack recipe with honey is very quick and easy. You'll just need 3 everyday ingredients, one pan and a baking tray. It takes 10 minutes to make the flapjack mixture, and 20 minutes to bake them. Your flapjack slices will be cooling on the side in just half an hour. (If you are very short on time, you could try these no bake flapjacks.)
- Adaptable. This simple recipe tastes delicious, but you can also adapt it to suit your taste with add ins. Dried fruits, chocolate chips, nuts, seeds and spices all make a great addition. You could also switch out the honey for maple syrup or golden syrup if you prefer. And if you want vegan gluten free flapjacks, use coconut oil instead of butter, or a vegan block.
- Healthy. This British flapjack traybake recipe is a healthier choice than many other treats and snacks. Oats are high in fibre, which means that they'll keep you fuller for longer, and are good for your digestive system. They are also rich in a particular type of soluble fibre called beta glucan which is good for heart health.
- Allergy-friendly. These gluten free oat bars are also egg free, nut free and easy to make dairy free and vegan.
- Ideal gluten free snack. This easy gluten free flapjack recipe is perfect with a cuppa or as an afternoon snack. Oat bars are also a healthy addition to a lunch box and don't need refrigerating.
This flourless wheat free flapjack recipe tastes like 'proper' flapjack, but it is lower in sugar and fat than many bought flapjacks. It uses honey with no refined sugar. If you want a gluten free flapjack recipe that is even healthier, try these healthy apple flapjacks, which use applesauce to replace the most of the butter and sugar. These healthy banana flapjacks are also very low in added sugar and fat. Or browse the whole collection of healthy gluten free flapjacks.
If you like dates, you might also enjoy these date and oat slices, which are like a flapjack with a layer of dates running through the centre.
Ingredients
Oats. Importantly, make sure that your oats state that they are gluten free on the packaging. Although they are naturally gluten free, oats can become contaminated with gluten from other grains when they are processed. Gluten free oats are processed separately to ensure that they are uncontaminated. Read more about gluten free oats.
You'll need rolled or porridge oats so that your flapjacks have a good texture. Instant oats will be too powdery, and steel cut oats will remain too hard.
Honey. I use runny honey in the recipe, but a set honey would also work as it will melt in the cooking process. I prefer to make these flapjacks without syrup as honey is a little less processed, but you could also use golden syrup if you prefer, or maple syrup.
Butter. Butter adds a lovely flavour to these gluten free flapjacks. Either salted or unsalted will be fine. If you want a vegan gluten free flapjack recipe, use either a vegan block or coconut oil and maple syrup. You can also make vegan flapjacks with almond butter which gives a lovely rich, fudgy flavour.
Optional ingredients
These simple gluten free flapjacks are yummy with just oats, butter and honey, but you can also add in extra flavours and ingredients if you want:
- Dried fruit. I like the addition of sultanas or raisins, but you could use other dried fruits such as chopped dried apricots, dried blueberries, or cranberries. Use about 30-40 g of dried fruit. Alternatively, you could also try these apricot and oat slices which have a thick layer of dried apricots through the centre of the bar.
- Nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds add a nice texture to a flapjack bar. If you're using large nuts, chop them into smallish pieces. You'll need about 25 g for this quantity of mixture.
- Spices. Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon goes really well in this recipe, but you could also use ground mixed spice, cardamom or ground ginger.
- Chocolate. Little chips of dark chocolate are always a good way to make these gluten free flapjacks a firm favourite. Chop about 30 g of dark chocolate into small pieces, and add to the mixture just before you put it in the tray. If you prefer, you could use ready made chocolate chips instead. Or for an extra chocolatey flapjack, this recipe has chocolate in the mixture as well as chunks of chocolate. You can also drizzle melted chocolate onto these gluten free flapjacks.
Suggested flapjack flavours:
- Pecan and honey
- Maple and walnut (depending on how strong you want the maple flavour use either all maple syrup or half honey half maple)
- Sultana and sunflower seed
- Apricot and almond
- Ginger and dark chocolate (add a few finely chopped pieces of stem ginger)
- Dried cranberry and dark chocolate adds a festive twist if you want a Christmas gluten free flapjack recipe
How to make gluten free flapjacks
Add the butter and honey to a saucepan and place on a low heat. Once the butter has melted, remove from the heat. It's important not to let the mixture boil, as it will start to turn into toffee!
Add the oats and any other optional ingredients that you are using, and stir together until well mixed.
Place the mixture in a lined baking tin, and press down firmly with the back of a spoon into the corners of the tin. This is really important to ensure that the oat bars hold together well.
Bake at 160 degrees for 20 minutes. After that time the flapjack will be lightly golden, and still soft to the touch. The flapjacks will harden a little as they cool, but the end result will still be slightly soft and chewy. If you'd prefer a crisper texture, cook them for up to 10 minutes longer but take care that they do not go too dark.
For this quantity of mixture, I use a tin which is about 20 cm long and 10 cm wide. Of course, you could easily double the quantity of mixture and use a 20 cm square tin. Place a piece of greased baking paper in the tin so that you can easily remove the flapjacks.
Mark the flapjacks into squares or bars whilst they are still warm in the baking tray. Then leave to cool completely before removing from the tray and cutting into pieces.
This quantity of mixture will make 6 gluten free oat bars. If you'd prefer to make bite-sized flapjacks, cut them in half again.
Frequently asked questions
Some flapjack recipes use wheat flour which means that they are not coeliac friendly. Provided that you use certified gluten free oats, this wheat free flapjack recipe is suitable for most coeliacs. However, a small number of coeliacs are also sensitive to the protein avenin which is present in oats.
Flapjacks are healthier than a number of other snacks as they contain wholegrain oats. But, they do still contain fat and sugar. If you want a flapjack recipe which is low in sugar and fat, then try this healthy apple flapjack recipe which uses applesauce to replace the most of the butter and honey. You could also use banana instead of applesauce, see healthy banana flapjacks.
This basic recipe uses butter and honey, neither of which are vegan. But you can easily substitute both the butter and honey in this recipe to make vegan gluten free flapjacks.
Once you've placed the flapjack mixture in the tin, firm it down with the back of a spoon or a palette knife. It's also important to let oat flapjacks cool in the tin, as they will firm up before you lift them out.
This recipe will easily keep for a week in an airtight container. You can also freeze flapjacks.
Other gluten free baking you might enjoy
There's also lots more recipes in this post about gluten free afternoon tea.
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Recipe
Gluten Free Flapjacks
Ingredients
- 50 g butter
- 3 tablespoon honey
- 100 g gluten free rolled or porridge oats
Optional ingredients
- 30 g dried fruit
- 25 g chopped nuts or seeds
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon or mixed spice
Instructions
- Place a piece of greased baking paper in the base of a 20 x 10 cm baking tray. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees (140 fan).
- Put the butter and honey in a saucepan and place on a low heat. Remove from the heat as soon as the butter has melted.
- Add the oats and any optional ingredients. Stir well until thoroughly mixed.
- Spoon the mixture into the lined baking tray. Press down firmly with the back of a spoon, ensuring the mixture goes into the corners of the baking tray.
- Bake for 20 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and mark into squares or bars. Leave to cool in the tray.
- Remove from the tray when cool and cut into pieces. Store in an airtight container
Notes
Nutrition
Please note nutritional information is per serving and is provided for guidance only.
Lorna says
I think I’m doing something wrong as mine are quite crumbly. I trebled the recipe and baked for around 30mins. Any advice.
It’s delicious still 👍
Wendy Faulkner says
Hi Lorna. If you treble the recipe, you'll need a tin of about 25 x 25cm. If the flapjacks are very thick, they are more likely to crumble. I think it would be better to make double the quantity in a 20 x 20cm tin - or even make 2 trays if you want a bigger batch.
The main technique with flapjacks is to really firm them down well in the tin to hold them together. Oats can vary a little, but I'd avoid large jumbo oats as they don't hold together so well. If you have only got jumbo oats you could blitz them slightly in a food processor to make them a little finer. And allow the flapjacks to get really cold before you cut them, you could even pop them in the fridge for a while.
I hope that helps.
Susan says
Really delicious flapjacks the family love them, so are definitely a firm favourite. Would it be ok to use golden syrup, although we are honey fans we love golden syrup too. 😋
Wendy Faulkner says
Hi, thank you so much. Yes, the recipe will still work with golden syrup as it's sticky and sweet like honey.
Cat says
Love them, so do my girls. Very delicious.
Wendy says
Thank you, that's great to hear:)