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Get your day started right with some homemade Healthy Flapjacks. They are so full of flavor, easy to make, and are the perfect breakfast even on those busy mornings. Vegan, gluten-free, and can be a healthy snack option too!
I have always been a big flapjack and breakfast lover. But usually they are packed with sugar and butter, so I wanted to create a healthier version that would be just as satisfying as the traditional version. Guess what! I finally did it, and that's why I am sharing these healthy flapjacks with you today.
They are so flavorful and simple to make, are vegan, gluten-free, and refined-sugar-free. Once you try this delicious easy flapjack recipe, you will crave them all the time!
Tools and Equipment You'll Need
Recipe Ingredients and Notes
- Oats: I used rolled oats because I like the consistency, but you can also use quick cooking oats for a chewier flapjack recipe.
- Nut Butter: Any nut butter you like will work! You can use peanut, almond, or even sunflower butter!
- Nuts: A mixed of crushed nuts work really well in this recipe both for consistency, texture and flavor.
- Seeds: I chose pumpkin and sunflower seeds, but you can use any seeds you like!
How to Make Flapjacks - Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the nut butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and vegan butter/coconut oil into a medium pot over medium/low heat. Stir until smooth and combined.
Step 2: In a separate bowl mix together all of the rest of the ingredients: oats, flax, dates, bananas, apples, through seeds.
Step 3: Add the dry ingredients to the pot and stir to combine.
Step 5: Pour the mixture into an 8×8 baking dish lined with parchment paper and press down so it's even (you can use a sheet of parchment paper and a rolling pin to help in pressing it down). The bars should be about ½ inch thick.
Step 6: Bake for 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Step 7: Cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing. Serve warm.
- Whole Grains and Fiber: Rolled oats are some of the healthiest grains you could eat. They are filled with antioxidants, heart-healthy fiber, and keep your blood sugar steady (no sugar spikes and crashes!). Each flapjack contains 5 grams of fiber!
- Low in Added, Refined Sugar: These flapjacks can either be cut into larger squares (where you get 9 extra large flapjacks) or smaller squares (where you get 16 smaller flapjacks). Even with the large squares (9 flapjacks), each flapjack has only 3 grams of added sugar! The rest is all natural sugar from the bananas, dates, and apples.
- Healthy Fats, Vitamins and Minerals: You'll get omega 3 fatty acids and tons of vitamins when you eat these healthy flapjacks, thanks to the flaxseed, dates, apples, bananas, nuts and seeds. It's like a nutritional powerhouse! Vitamin E, copper, magnesium, iron, calcium, phosphorus, and zinc all can be found in this easy flapjack recipe.
What Makes These Vegan Flapjacks Healthy?
Will Kids Enjoy These Healthy Flapjacks?
Absolutely! Kids are going to be smacking their lips and cleaning their plates when you serve them some healthy flapjacks. It's undeniably one of the best flapjack recipes ever. Kids will love all the different flavors and the texture of them too. Plus, they can customize theirs by adding fun toppings like fresh fruit, honey, or nuts too.
What Is a Flapjack? Are Flapjacks The Same As Pancakes?Recipe FAQs
How Do You Store and Freeze Healthy Flapjacks?In the US, we often use "flapjacks" and "pancakes" interchangeably. A flapjack might just be a more rustic version of a pancake, but on restaurant menus you'll see both terms for the same dish! But in the UK, flapjacks are nothing like a pancake. British flapjacks are more like an oat granola bar, which are cooked in a pan and then baked in the oven. Traditionally, British flapjack recipes have oats, butter, brown sugar, and syrup. My version is obviously much healthier than that, but keeps the spirit of the traditional version!
To Store: Once the flapjacks have adequately cooled, place them in an airtight container. Keep them in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. You can warm them up for 10-15 seconds in the microwave to enjoy them warm.
To Freeze: Let them cool completely. Then wrap each one up individually with some plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Then place the flapjacks in a freezer bag or airtight container. Take them out and thaw on the counter or in the fridge. Once thawed, eat them cold or heat in the microwave to warm them up.
- Fall Spices: Add some cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, and/or pumpkin pie spice into the flapjack recipe mixture.
- Banana Flapjack: Replace the apple with 1 banana (so you'd use 2 bananas total for this recipe) to give it a very banana-bread type flavor!
- Chocolate Flapjack Recipe: Add in 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate into the batter before baking.
- Mixed Fruit Flapjack: Mix in your favorite fruits, fresh or dried. Blueberries, chopped strawberries, dried cranberries, or even raisins would all be lovely options.
- Almond Flapjacks: Swap out the vanilla extract for some almond extract, use almond butter, and crushed almonds instead of peanuts or other nuts!
- Flapjack Recipe with Honey: This recipe is vegan, so it uses maple syrup instead of honey. But you could easily substitute the maple syrup for honey to get a vegetarian flapjack.
- Chewy Flapjack Recipe: The recipe as-is feels more like a granola bar than a dense, chewy bar. To get that super chewy consistency, add 1/2 cup oat flour into the batter. You can also add the batter into a food processor before baking to get an even chewier consistency and dense bar.
Recipe Variations
- Try to push all the ingredients into the pan evenly so they are around ½ inch thick.
- Using parchment paper in the baking dish with make it a lot easier to remove them out of the pan.
- After the flapjacks cool for 15 minutes slice them up. If you don't let them sit they will fall apart as you cut them!
- For a chewier, dense flapjack, add 1/2 cup oat flour to the batter and/or pulse the batter in a food processor before adding it to the baking pan.
- If you want a completely sugar-free flapjack, you can omit the maple syrup.
