Herbed Oat Cakes

I just realised I don't often mention Oat Cakes on here - these lovely little crackers used to be a staple in our diets, until I stopped buying processed/packaged foods! LOL So, now they are an occasional treat whenever I make them.

Even though there are so few ingredients and they are tasty, they are far better homemade then anything you can find in the shops. So, please try this out at home - or any variation of this recipe, because they are lovely, good for you and kind of fun to make. Especially if you have children...

When you make them at home you can jazz things up a bit, (which is the same thing we have found out about everything else we eat) and make some different combinations using herbs, grains, nuts, seeds, spices or whatever, to suit yourself.

A basic Oat Cake (herbed) recipe would be:

Thyme Herbed Oatcakes

2 cups ground oatmeal or oat flour

2 tablespoons spelt flour for rolling

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1 tsp salt

4 tablespoons olive oil

9 -11 tablespoons boiling water

Preheat your oven to 180C - in a deep bowl place the oatmeal, baking soda, thyme and some of the salt.

Carefully measure out the olive oil and add to the oatmeal mixture. Mix well - then slowly add the boiling water, 1 tablespoon at a time - be careful around spoon 8 - you might not need much more. If the dough is too dry - add up to 11. 

I usually stop somewhere between 9 and 10 tablespoons of water. The dough will be warm and soft but hold together well. Roll out flat onto a floured parchment to about 3mm thickness. Using a cookie cutter cut into round shapes - sprinkle a little salt over top and place on a baking sheet. You might also want to sprinkle more thyme at this point too. 

Bake for about 15 minutes until lightly golden - then allow to cool and enjoy with nut butter, jam, chutney, cheese, smoked fish or anything you wish. These are lovely on their own too. 

April

**Intuition for Business Class start 5 March in West Cork

Thyme Oat Cakes 

An Imperfect Cookie - Bliss

Right now I am eating (another) an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie - it is so tasty, I am even overlooking the fact that it's a little crumbly. How are cookies supposed to be anyway - I mean what are we comparing them to? 

Perhaps our 'ideal' for nearly any foods these days is to compare it to something perfectly round, flat, held together and uniform in every other way from a factory machine. Of course along with that perfect cookie comes the extra ingredients that are put in to get the desired effect.

Nothing like that with homemade foods - this cookie I am munching on right now is not uniform in any way - each one looks different. They are slightly crumbly from the use of only oat flour and oats and I probably put in way too many raisins. 

I like them that way.

Of course, you can't compare a homemade anything with a factory made something else - because the energy of the food is so very different. Whenever someone asks me what my secret ingredient is for my lovely cakes and cookies - I always say it is butter and love. 

So, with that in mind here is my recipe for these Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (as it stands right now).

3/4 cup butter

1 duck egg

2 cups oat flour

1 1/2 cups oats

3/4 cup raisins

1/3 cup honey or Maple Syrup

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon or all spice

1/2 tsp baking powder

salt (pinch)

2/3 cup nuts (optional)

Place all dry ingredients into a deep bowl and sift together to mix well. In the meantime melt the butter over low heat in a small sauce pan, put the honey in with it and mix. Beat the egg into submission in a separate bowl.

Once the flour is mixed, add the butter and egg - keep mixing until well coated. Then add in raisins and nuts if desired. This mixture should be thick and not runny - because each flour absorbs liquid differently, adjust quantities if needed. 

Spoon out large spoonfuls of the dough onto a greased cookie sheet or parchment paper and bake at 175C for about 12-14 minutes or so. Don't leave too long as they will be too dry and don't take out too soon as they will be doughy in the middle. 

These are fabulous with a cup of dandelion coffee! And you will have made them yourself...bypassing the food processing, perfect cookie route to enjoy imperfection at it's finest!

April 

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie