Oat cakes

[Geist3]

Oatcakes
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oatcake

Healthy, filling, easy to make

Oats Quote:A traditional saying in England is that "oats are only fit to be fed to horses and Scotsmen", to which the Scottish riposte is "and England has the finest horses, and Scotland the finest men"

Was eaten allot in Scotland, easy to carry around and filling so was carried around by farmers and soldiers.

Oatmeal/rolled oats
Flour (not self raising, plus i think you may not actually need it)
Salt
Water

• Put some oatmeal/rolled oats in a bowl. The finer the oats the easier it is to work with.
  
• Add some flour, about a third of the amount of the oatmeal.
  
• Add a little salt.
  
• Mix the contents of the bowl and add small amounts of water until you can nead it.
  
• Nead it.
  
• -Optional, add raisins and nead some more
  
• Get a frying pan, put a little oil in it, and heat on medium
  
• Flatten/roll out mixture. Make about 1/4 inch thick. (you can add more water/oats at any point. Also oats on the where your neading helps.
  
• Put in frying pan, turn occasionally till both sides are slightly golden. about 10-15 mins. I burt one though because when i put it in the pan the pan was already very hot, so it cooked quicker.
  
• Eat, optional to put jam on, but makes them more tasty and less dry
  

	Ingredients before adding water
	This one has raisins, its been neaded and flattened
	In the pan
	Comparison of cooked and non cooked
	Some experimental ones with jam and raisins. Jam didn't make much of a difference and made it hard to cook.
	Eating with jam, mmm
	With ingredients
	Raisin one mmm

Other version use lard, melted butter, baking soda. sugar, brown sugar, milk, eggs, shortening and stuff like that. Also i read that flour is only sometimes used.

[admin]

I love oatcakes - they're very popular in Leek, where my father's family are from. I like them warm with butter.

bb
Rhiannon

[Geist3]

That was the reccomended way to eat them, warm with butter. Mine do seem a bit bland though, even with raisins. Did yours have the same ingredients? i.e. Oats and water? Not that I mind though. They made a great compact food and kept me going on a nice long 4 hour walk in the countryside yesterday (Chipping Norton->Salford->Little Rollright->Rollrights->Over Norton->Chippy).

[admin]

I've only ever had them bought from the shops but I found this recipe on a BBC Website:

1LB.4OZS. OF MEDIUM COARSE OATMEAL.
12 OZS STRONG WHITE PLAIN FLOUR.
3 TBLS. DRIED SKIMMED MILK.
4 TSPS. QUICK ACT DRIED YEAST.
2 TSPS. SUGAR.

Place all ingredients into large bowl and make well in centre. Put in 1 and three quarter pints warm water and mix well. (Mixture should be quite ''loose'' like pancake batter. This may thicken after standinng ''loosen'' again to a batter consistency).

Now cover and place in a warm place (airing cupboard) for about 1hour 30 mins. - 2 hours. Time is not crucial but i don't usually leave it much longer than this.

After standing, uncover and mix well. Add more warm water if necessary, possibly about a pint to make it into 'loose' batter. Now add 2 tsps salt - do not do this sooner or you will kill the yeast.

Heat a bakestone or frying pan and use about a tsp. of oil for each oatcake. Once heated, turn down heat slightly and cook on both sides until all mixture is set. Make sure you 'roll' the pan to get an even coveridge - you'll soon get the idea of how thick you want them.

Cool on racks. These are now ready to do as you want with, either fry with bacon eggs etc. or wrap cheese in them and warm in microwave or under grill.