I’m happy to report that Ilona made it home yesterday in one piece and will be back to give us a full update and more good news after some well-deserved rest.
We’re staying in the realm of food today, but moving on to more sensitive matters. The kind that can divide nations, friendships, and apparently the BDH comment section.
Yesterday’s discussion of the appropriate substitution between heavy cream, double cream, single cream, whipping cream, half-and-half, clotted cream, and crème fraîche reminded me of this diplomatic incident. (To put your minds at ease, for the bean recipe you can use any type of cream that doesn’t curdle, but thickens when heat is applied. You can look at fat percentages if you want for guidance, as long as you don’t mention Miracle Whip and Cool Whip to me. I’ve had them explained so many times and I still cannot make heads or tails of it.)
You’ll be forgiven, with everything else going on in the world, if you missed the great cultural incident that was The Great Flapjack Dissension of ’25. It began innocently enough, with the Back To School fourth episode of season 16 of the The Great British Bake Off.
Flapjacks, not as you know them, indeed. Our American friends took to social media in horror.
“What are these granola bars? Where are the real flapjacks? Have the Brits finally lost it to tent fumes?”
Accusations of narrow-mindedness and language evolution digs were thrown back. The social media world of desserts was in a brûlée and there didn’t seem to be a way to peace.
In fairness, the Bake Off has committed culinary crimes against egg and country before, so the outrage was not unmotivated. One cannot mention the GBBO Mexican Week in polite company, but I recall the s’mores incident, when Paul Hollywood requested something involving Italian meringue (?), with chocolate ganache (??), sandwiched between digestives (?!), lightly singed with a blowtorch (!!!). And if that didn’t just take the giddy biscuit, he deducted points when the confection was “too gooey”. Those weren’t s’mores, they were s’lesses.
In this case, however, the flapjacks are perfectly legitimate. In the UK, flapjacks are an oaty tray bake, golden-syrupy and buttery squares of soft goodness. Apparently, up North people eat them with custard, though I still suspect that might be a joke my friends played on me. The name underwent the rebranding in the 1930s, but the details seem to be lost to time and treacle. If you know the explanation, please chime in!
In the US, they stayed more faithful to their original etymology, from flap (“to toss sharply”) and jack (“a generic object”), and are basically a pancake. It’s simply one of those differences of old, like biscuits (flaky buttery wonders, not actually ‘a bit like scones’ at all), and biscuits (shortbreads and cookies, live-in-a-jar sort of things).
The moral of the story is perhaps that when even the humble flapjack or random cream can divide us, we’ll simply have to double down on efforts to embrace our differences. If werewolves and vampires can share a cup of coffee and run together naked in an inn orchard…actually, you know, that might not be the best example of camaraderie in adversity. Steve does tend to take things literally, and I don’t want an international streaking incident on my conscience.
You get the gist though.
Come, thou shalt go home, and we’ll have flesh for holidays, fish for fasting-days, and moreo’er puddings and flap-jacks, and thou shalt be welcome.
– William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act II Scene I
First?
First with the daily hand shake!
the embedded video isn’t working! is it a me issue – full fledged luddite here…lol
Working for me, double checked it with a friend too. Maybe refresh the page?
If not, clicking on the YouTube logo in the lower right will take you to the website to watch it directly 🙂 – here’s the link too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMzz6JxUZDw
it’s not available in the u.s.
Looks like the video isn’t available for US folks. ☹️
If any kind hearted American friend can look up a link available and post it, I will replace the embed. It’s season 16, episode 4 the intro on flapjacks 🙂
I have a proofreading deadline and the search isn’t helping me with regional availability. Thanks all!
Unfortunately my search didn’t reveal any useful clips of that particular episode.
This not that specific episode, but a British Bake Off contestant’s humorous “fail” attempt at Flapjacks. https://youtu.be/AlGQYd6vUnI?si=1aGw5-zNERYcaNqo
And this is someone’s quick demonstration of their version of successful flapjacks https://youtube.com/shorts/YT4OEN4ExlY?si=Lmf_-l_7LlAhgGml
I am US-based so I just see great soft granola bar recipes. 😄
Yeah, I watched the second one, and it reminds me of the “cookie bars” we used to make as kids, when we couldn’t be bothered to scoop and drop individual bits of dough on a sheet. Honestly I loved those more than most actual cookies though. There was a version called “Scotch Seas” that was basically butter, brown sugar, and rolled oats, which was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted as a kid. I regret that the recipe we used was lost sometime over the past half-century, but no doubt there are versions floating around the cloud somewhere.
sounds like the recipe for Scotch Teas
I googled Scotch teas biscuits and found a recipe made with butter, brown sugar, rolled oats baking powder and salt. They were made in a square pan. There were several different sites with recipes. They looked really tasty! Right now I’m trying to find my fruitcake ingredients. The candied citrus peel has been a no-show in every store I’ve looked at so far. It just hasn’t come in and on line it is ridiculously expensive. I may end up making my own. I found instructions on line and it looks like a possibility! I did find the cherries and other candied fruit. I’ve been making it for my husband and his side of the family for decades. Can’t stand it myself!
Definitely make your own. It really isn’t hard and they’re better. My kids will eat the strips by themselves.
Thanks!
That does sound like them – it was a square pan for sure, and those ingredients are the same. I may make those for the family Christmas!
Here’s the whole episode link: https://share.google/aZAfiN7HpCsiQKkwJ
Here’s a flapjack fail bit on TokTok: https://share.google/zLiXAOJ5zEQQRCFpE
Not quite what you asked for, but the best I could find right now. (I’m supposed to be working.)
Thanks so much Breann, but no, that’s not the episode. That one is from a Celebrity special in 2019.
I’m referencing the recent episode from September 2025, season 16 episode 4.
GBBO current season is only available in the USA on Netflix, I believe.
But that was pretty hilarious. I hadn’t seen it but did see the current episode. I wonder why they’re called flapjacks. I always thought the US version was called that because we flip/flop/flap? them over in the pan.
You Tube said the video was not available in my country–in this case the US.
And if that didn’t just take the giddy biscuit, he deducted points when the confection was “too gooey”. Those weren’t s’mores, they were s’lesses.
Hilarious!
I am trying to envision Augustine eating stacks of british flapjacks and it’s just not working for me…
lol, perfect!
Mmm!! Biscuits and scones!! My mom made both, being a child of Irish immigrants, and raised in Iowa farm country. Scones were sweeter, biscuits were more savory, both always with butter, and devoured happily by us kids and our dad!! She also made pancakes with bacon or sausage, and shortbread cookies from a pound measure recipe. We were very lucky!!
Hello from Iowa farm county! 🤗
I’m a fan of Welsh cakes. There is a vendor who sells at my local Renaissance Faire with a slew of flavors.
I found this link for S16E4
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9s5ev2
‘Back to School’
Yep,
GBBO YouTube episodes are regionally locked for US folks probably because of an x,y or z contract (guessing because of Netflix or Amazon) creating an electronic exclusivity of “if you want to see this … subscribe to our service” gate.
If we’re going to talk about being faithful to the original meaning then biscuit means twice cooked (from french/latin. bis= twice, bi has the same root. cuit = cooked)
Not many british biscuits are still baked twice, but you could for some and they’re a lot closer to the sort of thing you get if something is baked twice. Biscotti are still true to their name
Sounds like the originals were what is now more commonly referred to as “hardtack”. It was a staple naval, military and travel food from the 16th or 17th centuries to WW1 because it gave you a bread that lasted almost forever. Soaking it in soup or stew or dipping it in coffee or tea before trying to eat it was highly advised to avoid breaking teeth…
Glad to hear Ilona is doing well.
Love GBBO, but I think the earlier seasons were better. It seems like the tasks presented to the bakers are a bit over the top lately. I also liked Mel & Sue best as the hosts. They were always so upbeat and positive with the contestants.
Happy to read that Ilona’s surgery went well.
Mod R, you are hilarious. In a world where there’s a lot of “stuff” (you can put whatever word here) going on, this post was a refreshing read.
No dividing here. I do have to remind myself, every once and awhile, the difference between American biscuits and British biscuits. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It was days before I could look an avocado in the face.
erm.. who is Steve?
Steve is from a bit that ModR wrote awhile back . . . I can’t find the link for the original post. Maybe ModR can oblige. He’s now a bit of a recurring character/reference.
Let’s just say that Steve is VERY ENTHUSIASTIC.
Steve is also a brilliant scapegoat/front man/lightning rod for all those shenanigans the BDH would love to get up to but hasn’t quite found the courage (or lack of common sense) to jump into 😉
thank you, must have missed it when it was originally posted, or maybe it was before my time. Will have fun catching up now😊
Oh no, the credit is not mine! Steve is of course, another brilliant Ilona creation!
Here is his origin story: https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/fandom-tea-party-2/
Steve has been on a few lesser adventures since, that’s true. He makes a beautiful scapegoat 😀 . Maybe I should create a Chronicles of Steve page somewhere hehe.
https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/555-rumors/
https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/mission-nav-possible/
https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/we-got-mail/
Oh — I thought he was yours. (Apologies to Ilona.)
But YES! A “Chronicles of Steve” Page. Or “The (Mis)Adventures of Steve.”
We all have our inner Steve.
Poor Steve having all his harebrained schemes out in the open. He might go into hiding after all that. 😁🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I too would welcome a (Mis)Adventures of Steve page but maybe it should be called The CHancy Adventures Of Steve, aka The CHAOS…
Anyway, thanks to Mod R for digging through the archives for those old blogs where Steve made an appearance. After finding out the blog about literary AITA had disappeared into mothballing, I’ve taken to saving the posts that made me laugh hardest in pdf form, just to avoid that horrible frustration of being unable to reconnect with some delightful memories (almost as frustrating as w**ting !)
A Steve page would b awesome! Thanks Mod. R!
Thank you so much!!🤩
I love GBBO and have many of the cookbooks. American scones are nothing like the Irish ones I had; the American ones are either fried bread dough or a sweet biscuit, while the Irish ones were fairy gold. I think the higher butterfat and the room temperature butter make the difference.
I am not a fan of Amazon in many ways, but it certainly makes it easier to get jam sugar and golden syrup.
Yep. Gotta keep an eye on Steve . . .
Dare I bring up the order of clotted cream and jam on a scone?
🤣👍 better not
🤣🤣 diplomacy squared!
Only if you want to kick off an English Civil War far far more intense and vicious than that tiny little spat they had in the 1600s between King and Parliament…
Or just a little rebellion with the English colonies in the 1700s. Got to watch out for “over informed Bostonians”.
“Over informed Bostonians” was a phrase Prince Edward (now Duke of Edinburg) coined when he did a mini-series on the American Revolution from the British perspective. It was an interesting watch on PBS.
hahahaha
Our son got married in London in May and there was a high tea with fizz for their reception. Clotted cream and jam were consumed in mass quantities, but references to order were strictly prohibited.
International streaking incident……
The visions that engendered….
In the vein of the pantless subway rides of yore….
Thank you ModR for the multiple chuckles!
Sending peace, health and mirth to you all!
Another funny post, thank you ModR! I loved the plays on words, especially s’lesses! Good to hear Ilona is doing well, too.
Esteemed R, the Moderator- thou art hilarious!
Lol, love the reference to Bake Off, especially as last night was the final!!! I also just happen to be re-reading Sweep in Peace and a vampire went running off naked into the orchard!!
I also only recognise English flapjacks and scones (biscuits US style are salty scones)!!
Wonders of YouTube… In Germany I can play the link, but somehow I get a version that has been lip-synced in German!
And I do not think this was done with AI, but by actual humans effecting an horrible fake early nineties late-night shopping channel cheer…
I had to stop after a minute… *shudder*
Yeah, YT does that recently and everyone hates it 😀
If you go to Settings/Audiotrack, you can choose the original soundtrack, which makes it totally enjoyable.
That reminds me of the old Godzilla movies that were in Japanese but dubbed in English. The people would stop talking, but the English kept going and vice versa. It was hilarious to watch.
Glad Ilona’s surgery went well!
I had no idea about flapjacks! Thanks for the education!
Very entertaining!!!
It’s not quite the same, but my mum’s version of treacle tart was essentially a gooey-er than normal flapjack on a pastry (so with oats rather than breadcrumbs), and yes it was served with custard. I was brought up in Oxford, with parents of Cornish origin, though both had lived all over the place growing up as the children of Methodist ministers (they moved them on every four years) so I don’t know where the habit came from.
Regular, if rather dry, flapjacks were part of the rotation of small cakes and biscuits available to feed lots of hungry kids (there were six of us) between meals. Honestly they could have done with custard more than the treacle tart, she eked out the more expensive margarine and syrup by mashing in as many oats as she could.
So am I the only conditioned member of the BDH to see the blog photo and think “oh, more Diana and Augustine?”🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣
If you have Netflix the entire episode is available there.
Where did you find that great deal on reading glasses
UK biscuits, US biscuits, scones, flapjacks, pancakes….oh heck, this is just too confusing! I will just take and enjoy them all with a smile!!! 😂
PS: So glad to hear Ilona is now on the mend. I probably have that surgery waiting for me in the not too distant future, but I refuse to even think about it until after the holidays!
Be it cream or flapjacks, surely we can all agree that carbs and fat are a common and beloved basis for harmony. Whether you lean sweet or savory, carbs and fat are the ties that bind!
As it happens, I am bilingual both in UK English and American English, especially in regards to cooking/baking/food names/terminology, and swearing. I have a special interest in both cooking/baking and in swearing. When I was a teenager I could swear in five languages. Some people would not think that was something to be proud of. I am not those people. 🤣
I’m glad Ilona has made it safely home and wish her clear vision from here. May your rest be cozy and peaceful!
how Shakespeare’s flapjacks might had tasted?
Re the custard. They were definitely having a laugh. Unless that was an apple crumble (there is a version with oats in it) in which hot with custard or vanilla ice cream is definitely a thing. The us flap jack sounds like a variety of drop scone to me. Thanks for the education though. I had no idea we differed on flapjacks, I’m still getting over the biscuit/bread thing. And don’t let me get started on crocheting…
” It’s simply one of those differences of old, like biscuits” … I’ve been told by British co-workers that Americans do not speak English. We speak American, it seems.
I had classmates and professors who were from India and spoke British English. It was funny to see their faces when I knew what they were talking about. I had to be very careful not to throw a lot of American colloquialisms in my speaking. If I did, I would get a weird look from one of my professors (who happened to be my department’s head professor). Then I had to explain what I just said for him to get it.
Actually yes. Linguistically speaking we’re starting to diverge enough to start forming our own language. Yes, it is still close enough to the base language that we still mostly understand each other but we are diverging. Everyone keeps forgetting that 200+ years of immigrants means all their languages have spent 200+ years changing what we speak. Just look at any of the “why don’t these rhyme” memes. They don’t because american got them from different languages brought to us by different immigrants. We’re one of the last counties to call what we use english. Most of the others, not all, are using american for us & english for England.
A New York Broadway critic gave “Operation Mincemeat” a bad review due to the “terrible rhymes”. Particularly Moscow with Crossbow. They are pronounced differently in England so they do rhyme in London
Ooooo custard with flapjacks – why didn’t I think of that? I’m off to try it immediately. Well, first I have to bake the flapjacks 🙂
Reading J. D. Kirk I just learned a Scotch pancakes and I can’t wait to try them! An Americans are serious lacking since we don’t have clotted cream!
I am glad Ilona is doing well and resting. Thank you so much for this. I needed a chuckle this morning 💗
Thank you for explaining what British people mean by flapjack, Moderator R. I watched that episode of the bake off and wondered.
Ha ha, I had to laugh at all the comments about flapjacks. I’ve had flapjacks on trips to the UK and liked them, but my very favorite dessert is Tablet, which cracks me up that I am eating a dessert that is named after a medicine pill.
My second favorite is Millionaires Shortbread, which is truly decadent. I do like the names of food in the UK. They make me smile, and they always taste good—except for black pudding. 🙂
+1
They do have great names for treats! Digestives…Hobnobs! 😁
International Pancake Race between a town in Kansas and a town in England. Still going on.
https://visitliberal.com/international-pancake-day/#:~:text=In%20Liberal%2C%20the%20event%20started,Church%2C%20116%20West%20Third%20Street.
Ya that jerk lost me when he told them to make American pies then spent 10 min belittling my grandma’s very delicious cherry pie. That man doesn’t know squat about cooking.
This is what the video says in US
Video unavailable
The uploader has not made this video available in your country
I couldn’t open link, but I love Jaimie Oliver’s video on making UK flapjacks. At the end he tests its dunkability claiming: “Oh! It is a dunker!” 😂
Oh and you’re right on most every subject…as long as we agree to disagree it’s all good!
I love a fresh-baked British flapjack! Also, what about clotted cream?
Had a ‘war’ once in the Internet (lots of people from all over the world involved) about the term ‘vest’.
After some ‘discussions’ we realized it means very different kind of clothing, depending on the country someone lives in. Not all of those English speaking countries.
Can be a sleeveless T-Shirt (I think the version with very narrow ‘holders’), a Pullover without sleeves, a jumper/jacket without sleeves), a dress without sleeves (or what it that one with the thin straps as holders?) => in the end all of those are sleeveless
Sandals too seem not to mean everywhere the same (especially in some details)
Was a looong time ago, but it taught me to never assume to know what someone else means with a certain term
Ok, can we just take a moment to acknowledge the brilliance of Mod R? She writes so well, and I find myself chuckling frequently at her wordplay (in multiple languages at times). Awesome.
Can we have a post discussing the differences between biscuits, scones, cookies, in North American vs British context, please? (other cultural interpretations are welcome). I see so many arguments between different types.
🥹I visited the Calanais Stones in Scotland in 2017 and had some Flapjack at the small cafe there. It was so good and I’ve wanted to recreate it for years, even buying the golden syrup. I tried for a bit to find a recipe that would work and tried a few but no luck. It was smooth and I couldn’t get the right consistency.
Other than that, Flapjacks makes me think of Groundhog Day the movie.🤣
Wishing Ilona a speedy recovery! Looking forward to watching that episode of the GBBO.
Just caught up on BBBS, and knew exactly those episodes of which thee didst speak of! I had a Scooby Doo moment with flapjacks as well, but hey…it’s all yummy and that’s ok for me!
I just got around to reading this, and started laughing. My brother moved to Australia many years ago, because his wife was from there and she wanted to move back home. Since they use a lot of British English vs. American English, I’ve had to adapt to his changing word use when he comes back to the States. When I watch the British baking shows, I’m mentally translating what they are cooking from their British terms to our terms. Flapjacks, however, are not a term I’ve heard them use, so I will add this to my translation repertoire.
I do start rolling around on the floor laughing when they attempt to cook something American or Mexican or Tex-Mex. It gets hilarious.
Streaking Steve!!!!!!! GIGGLES MADLY
It delights me so much when I find other common areas of interest with other members of the BDH. I just love GBBO
Mod R you are something else. So clever and gifted. I love it when y’all write about food with great pictures. Yum. Great episode.