What’s happened to golden syrup??

[Roryno]

Has anyone noticed how runny golden syrup has suddenly become? I usually use Tesco or Aldi’s and you often have to warm the bottles to get it to pour. Yet suddenly it’s runny and thin. I sell a lot of flapjacks and it’s not coming out as well as it used to.

Have you tried the Tate & Lyle tin?

Didn't we have this recently?

No I might have to. Thanks. But it can’t be warmed up in the microwave, which I do a lot as am cooking partially outside.

Did you? What was the consensus?

Just put it in a pan of hot water.

Check that you aren’t buying ‘pouring syrup’.

I bought the runny one in a squeeze bottle lately. The tinned one is too thick and make a mess.
But golden syrup baked sponge pudding is still the most delicious thing on earth!

Tangent, but OP how do you get your flapjacks to stay together when removing from the tin? Mine are always a disaster and I basically end up with extremely sticky granola bits everywhere… latest disaster was this afternoon, so your post is timely for me!

I feel I'm a pro at making flapjack now!
The trick is to leave the mixture in the tin for 10 mins after taking out the oven, then mark out the lines where you're going to cut, but only just slightly indenting the mixture.
Then leave in tin to completely set and once completely cooled, then take out of the tin and cut down the markings. It should be firm and set at that point so won't crumble.
If you try and cut it while still warm it'll just fall apart :)

Line the bottom of the tin

Why do you need to warm the container in the microwave? You can spoon out what you need into a pan with the butter / sugar etc, or a microwaveable bowl?

I press mine down when they come out of the oven. I then leave them in the tin for a day.

There is now a huge difference between cheap supermarket syrup and the proper Tate and Lyle stuff. I tried to swap to the cheap stuff for the kids porridge and they noticed instantly and wouldn't eat it.

I'm a fellow flapjack maker and the flapjacks made with the good stuff are always superior.

Re stopping it from crumbling when taking it out of the tin, I line the tin with parchment paper and let it completely cool in the tin before lifting it out.

And obviously using soupdragons flapjacks recipe with condensed milk in it...

I think the syrup in the Tate & Lyle tins taste different from the plastic bottles (better!) And non T&L syrup is just awful. So there are definitely different types of syrup!

The plastic bottle stuff used to be fine until a couple of months ago. I warmed it in the microwave to get it to pour in cold weather (my cafe is outdoors in a converted horse trailer so I’m cooking at pretty low temps in winter. I have to warm butter and syrups…)

Re getting flapjack out, I always line the tin with baking paper. But let them cool well before getting them out. I cut them into pieces in the tin before they’re hard.

I’ll be gutted to have to change to tins (can’t be warmed up as easy and harder to keep flies out when cooking outside in summer - they don’t tell you any of this on Bake Off!). But the plastic jar syrup is so thin now, it runs to the bottom of flapjacks before they are cooked, so they’re sticky at the bottom and dry at the top. I’m tweaking recipes at the moment and doing a little less syrup and a little more brown sugar, which helps a bit.

Thanks for your replies. At least I’m not going mad!