Scottish Oatcakes

Crisp, savoury Scottish oatcakes of oats, a little wholemeal flour and butter, bound with just-boiled water and baked.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Flatbreads section and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

• 225 g oats
• 60 g wholemeal (whole-wheat) flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 60 g butter
• 60–90 ml water from a just-boiled kettle

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 190 °C (170 °C fan) / 375 °F.
2. Mix the oats, flour, salt, sugar and baking soda. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks like large crumbs.
3. Bind. Add the hot water a little at a time to make a thick dough.
4. Roll on a floured surface to about ½ cm (¼ inch) and cut about 16 rounds.
5. Bake on a tray about 20 minutes, until golden. Cool on a rack; they crisp as they cool.

Notes

Source Adapted from “Scottish oatcakes,” BBC Good Food (no author named). The source does not say whether the oats are rolled or pinhead; fine or medium oatmeal gives the traditional texture.

A tip from a second source Genevieve Yam’s Serious Eats version rolls the dough between two sheets of parchment and freezes it for 30 minutes before cutting, which stops the crumbly oat dough breaking; it bakes at 350 °F for 25–30 minutes.

The girdle Traditionally a round of oatcake was cut into quarters (farls) and dried on a hot iron girdle over the fire. Neither source gives a girdle method; a cast-iron griddle on low is the stand-in.

The Flatbreads section of the Breads pages on the Food site covers the history, the science and the griddles.