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Scottish Oatcakes

Traditional savoury biscuits or crackers: perfect with cheese or to eat alongside soup.

Course Snack, Bread, Cheese
Cuisine British, Scottish
Keyword crackers, biscuits, oats
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings 24 oatcakes (approx)
Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

  • 140 g rolled oats or porridge oats
  • 140 g oatmeal (fine, medium or coarse) See Recipe Notes for making your own
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • 75 ml olive oil OR 75g butter, melted see Recipe Notes
  • 100-150 ml boiling water
  • more oatmeal or some wholemeal flour for rolling out (wholemeal flour is less sticky)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4.

    Line 2 baking trays with baking parchment or greaseproof paper.

  2. Mix together the oats, oatmeal and salt in a bowl, then make a well in the centre.

  3. Pour the olive oil or melted butter into the well, along with 100ml of the boiling water.

    Stir quickly to bring the mixture together into a firm dough. Add more boiling water if necessary.

  4. Sprinkle a little oatmeal or wholemeal flour on your work surface and transfer the dough onto it.

    Sprinkle the dough and a rolling pin with oatmeal and roll out to 3-5 mm thick, depending on how thick you'd like the oatcakes. If the dough starts to come apart at the edges, just push it back together with your hands. If the dough seems to dry, sprinkle with extra water.

    Cut out oatcakes using a 6-7 cm cutter then transfer to the baking trays.

    Bring together the scraps and re-roll to make more oatcakes until all the dough is used up.

    The oat dough can be very 'thirsty': you will most likely need to add a little more water when bringing together the scraps.

  5. Put the trays in the preheated oven and bake the oatcakes until lightly brown and cooked all the way through.

    Unless you've rolled the dough very thick or very thin, this should take around 30 minutes. Turn over after the first 20 minutes for even browning.

  6. Transfer the oatcakes to a wire rack to cool.

    Store in an airtight container once completely cold.

    Should keep for a least a month.

Recipe Notes

Note 1  You can make your own oatmeal using rolled oats or porridge oats: whizz in a food processor or blender until they're as fine or as coarse as you like.

Note 2  I've found little difference between oatcakes made with olive oil and those made with butter, so use whichever you prefer. 75g of butter melted isn't the exact equivalent of 75ml of olive oil but it makes little difference to the result.

Recipe based on one by Bill Cowie shared via Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.