Cheesy Scottish Oatcakes
Easy to make and with simple ingredients this cheesy take on a traditional savoury biscuit or cracker is wickedly good! Enjoy as part of a cheeseboard, at any time instead of bread, or as snack just as they are.
Please read the accompanying blog post before starting and use metric measurements.
Ingredients
- 140 g rolled oats or porridge oats
- 140 g oatmeal (fine, medium or coarse) or oat flour (see Recipe Notes for making your own from rolled or porridge oats)
- 100 g mature Cheddar cheese (grated)
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 75 g butter (melted: plus extra for greasing)
- 100 - 120 ml boiling water from a kettle
- wholemeal flour for rolling out (can use oatmeal instead, but wholemeal flour is less sticky)
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 180°C /160° Fan/Gas 4 /350°F.
-
Lightly grease 2 baking trays with butter or line with baking paper.
-
Put in a mixing bowl the oats, oatmeal, cheese, salt and pepper, then stir together.
Make a well in the centre and pour in the melted butter plus 100 ml of boiling water.
Stir quickly to bring the mixture together into a firm dough. Add a little more boiling water if the mixture looks at all crumbly.
-
Dust your worksurface, ideally covered with a silicone mat to reduce sticking, with wholemeal flour then transfer the dough onto it.
Sprinkle the dough and a rolling pin with oatmeal and roll out approximately 3 mm thick.
Tip 1. If the dough starts to come apart at the edges, just push it back together with your hands.
Tip 2. If it seems at all crumbly sprinkle with a little water (cold rather than boiling is ok at this stage).
-
Stamp out oatcakes using a 6 - 7 cm round cutter. Use a round bladed knife to help you lift and transfer them to the baking trays.
Bring together the scraps and re-roll to make more oatcakes until all the dough is used up.
Tip: oat dough can be very 'thirsty': so you will likely need to add a little more water when bringing together the scraps, and especially if you added a lot of flour when rolling out.
-
Put the trays in the preheated oven and bake until golden and cooked all the way through: approximately 25 - 30 minutes.
Check after 15 minutes that the oatcakes aren't browning too quickly before they're cooked: reduce the temperature if necessary.
Tip: for even baking, you may wish to turn the oatcakes over for the final 5 minutes or so.
-
Transfer the baked oatcakes to a wire rack to cool.
When completely cold, store in an airtight container.
Should keep at least a month.
Recipe Notes
Make your own oatmeal. If you don't have oatmeal or oat flour, make your own by whizzing rolled oats or porridge oats in a food processor, blender or coffee mill. Whizz briefly for coarser oatmeal, longer for fine.
Rolling the dough. Wholemeal flour is less sticky than oatmeal and makes rolling out easier, but use extra oatmeal if you prefer.