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 

Making Crackers...

If you have never made your own crackers, you don't know what you are missing! Anything else that you might buy from a shop is tasteless and bland by comparison. Homemade crackers are a delightful treat and so easy to make.

This is the number one item on my list (well, next to bread) when I ask myself, where has it all gone wrong for us to believe that we should be buying these foods? Something as simple as a cracker actually has flavour, taste, texture and life in it when it is made by hand and not by some machine. 

This morning I wanted to make a few for our lunch and set to work with a plan to make some spelt and oat crackers which are actually fun to make and everyone can get involved. The wonderful thing about nice crackers is that there are so FEW ingredients. 

Today the sun was shining (this is getting to be rare enough) and I did not want to spend too much time in the house baking - so these were made early in the day.

Measuring all the ingredients into the bowl

The type of crackers I made today are perhaps the most complicated ones that I make and even then there are only a few items that you will need. To make these crackers I used spelt flour, oats, butter, oil, milk, soda and then the toppings (poppy seed, thyme, sea salt).

Cracker dough ready to roll out

The element that I wanted to include here is one of fun - that was the word that I was trying to find for these last few weeks while I have been writing this blog and recording my experiences in the kitchen. Added into the taste, flavour,  and texture of these crackers is the fact that we always have fun making them, with the children watching the oven waiting for them to be done and helping out. 

Many hands helping out! 

Of course you will also get all sorts of interesting shapes, thickness, sizes and variation in the toppings which makes these fun to eat. I think they look great on a plate and at our house, they do not last long. The length of time in the oven will also give variation on the crispness, so each batch is likely to be slightly different, but always good.

Homemade crackers as they cool 

There are many kinds of crackers to make, and I also make a type of cracker from time to time with only spelt flour, oil, sea salt and water as these taste very nice with soft goat's cheese. A few weeks ago I was needing graham crackers for my son's birthday cheesecake, I refused to buy them, so, I made them myself. They were lovely also and I plan to make some more soon. 

When it comes to crackers, you have to give this a try - they really do taste much better homemade.

Have a lovely day,

April