Here’s another wartime recipe I created in April! These “Oatcakes” from the “Good Fare – A Book of Wartime Recipes” created by “The Daily Telegraph” newspaper were easy and quick to make and tasty too! Personally, next time I make then I will use 1/2 fine and 1/2 medium oatmeal as they were very crumbly!
Ingredients for Oatcakes
- 1/2 lb medium oatmeal
- 2oz fat (I used hard margarine)
- Pinch bicarbonate of soda
- Pinch of salt
- Hot water for mixing
Method
Mix dry ingredients together. Mix fat with a little hot water, add gradually to dry ingredients to make a pliable dough. Knead, and roll out thinly on a board well covered with oatmeal. Cut in rounds, bake in moderate oven (180) for about 30 minutes.
Much love, C xxxx
They look delicious. This is something I’ve been meaning to make for years, but US oatmeal is rolled oats, not UK oatmeal and it does not work the same at all. I’ve been meaning to order some online, although I don’t normally order food online, but this is my reminder. I’ve had commercial oatcakes and love them with tea.
Hi, yes we have porridge/rolled oats and then this is ground down in a food processor to medium oatmeal and fine oatmeal – you can buy oatmeal in bags too. I don’t know it was different in the US, thanks for letting me know xxxx
These are great to have with cheese 😀
Soda usually requires an acid, like vinegar or lemon, to work. So how dense are these cakes? I’m from the US so trying to figure out if there is a lot of difference in oats and soda between versions from UK vs. US. Does anyone out there know???
Baking soda/bicarb is the same in both countries. I suspect you are thinking about the leavening properties of baking soda – making things rise. But baking soda is used for more than leavening, such as texture. Soda crackers, aka Saltines, use baking soda yet they don’t rise. A British biscuit would be more dense than we think of a cookie in the US. Imagine a rather flat ginger snap: crispy and dense but thinner than a regular cookie. As for the oats, oatmeal in the US is rolled oats whereas Scottish oatmeal is stone-ground oats (not steel cut) so the pieces of the oat groats are varied but rather small. I’ve heard Scottish oat cakes can be made in the US using quick (not instant) oats and it will come out similarly, but if you want to make traditional oatcakes, you’ll likely have to buy imported stone ground oat meal or try Bob’s Red Mill brand which sells a Scottish oatmeal claiming it is made the same way as stone-ground Scottish oats.