Oatcakes

I don’t think I’d ever made oatcakes before, but I’m in love. An oatcake is a Scottish pastry that I would describe as a cousin to a scone, or perhaps a cross between a scone and a biscuit. The oats are dominant, and the cake itself is a little sweet, but not too much, and it is filling. I loved them for breakfast and as a snack. Since I don’t have round cookie cutters, I used a glass to cut the dough – the diameter of my glass was probably bigger than the cookie cutter called for, because I ended up with fewer oatcakes (14, instead of roughly 2 dozen). I got the recipe from Orangette. These oatcakes are addictive and wholesome and *really* good.



1 ½ cups (150 g.) rolled oats
1 cup (140 g.) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (60 g.) packed brown sugar
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. fine salt
1 stick (113 g.) cold unsalted butter, diced (I used margarine)
¼ cup full-fat plain yogurt (make sure it’s lactose-free)
lactose-free whole milk, if needed

Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Line two baking sheets with parchment (I only needed one sheet).

In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt, whisking to blend. Add the butter, and use your fingers, pressing and squeezing, to work it into the oat mixture until it resembles a coarse meal (I started with a fork, and only used my fingers at the end). Stir in the yogurt until a soft dough forms. (If your yogurt is on the thick side, you may need to add a tablespoon or so of milk, just enough to bring the dough together.) The dough should be a little crumbly. (In my case, it was very crumbly. Maybe it was a matter of letting the oats absorb the moisture? Even with milk, it didn’t really become a dough until I patted it down in place on my floured countertop, at which point it remained sticky.)

Lightly flour a work surface, and turn the dough out onto it, rolling or patting it to a ¼-inch thickness. (I found that the dough was a little too sticky to roll cleanly, but it worked out alright.) Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter, stamp out oatcakes, and transfer them to the prepared sheet pans. (A bench scraper comes in handy for transferring the oatcakes to the sheet pans and cleaning the counter afterward. I found that I could comfortably fit about 15 oatcakes on one pan and the remainder on the second.) (I am really into parentheses today.) It’s okay to gather and re-roll any scraps of dough.
Bake the oatcakes for about 15 minutes, or until they are golden brown around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.