A muddle with our milkman

I’m sure I have an oats and oatmeal recipe book somewhere. I can’t actually remember it or remember what the cover looks like – it’s probably one of those 1950’s or 60’s booklets published by a food producer on cheapish paper with slightly thicker covers. I love these little books – they are so full of imaginative ideas, using cheap ingredients, because after the war it took a long time for things to recover. Being self-sufficient in food became a deeply ingrained habit, be an imaginative cook, substitute expensive or unavailable ingredients for something else, bulk out meals with well-seasoned vegetables, and sauces made from leftovers, drippings, and scraps. Grow things at home, or share an allotment, flavour dull foods with herbs and spices (yes, spicing isn’t new – if something has gone a bit “off” mask the flavour with a good shake of pepper, or homemade sauce!)

I’ve wandered away from oats. We got in a muddle with our milkman and ended up with double the amount of milk we could consume, so porridge was made, and a cheese sauce to pour over pasta (not at the same meal, obviously!)

However, because porridge was made, I’d discovered more than several packets of oats at the back of the cupboard (the cupboard I have to stand on tip-toes to reach into) So thinking now of excess oats, flapjacks spring to mind. Now I do love a good flapjack, but unfortunately I’m not an expert flapjacker – a passable flapjacker, an ok flapjacker, but not a fabulous flapjacker. I see I’ve shared twenty-three blogs about flapjacks, so the sensible thing would be to revisit them, but no, I’ve found several other oaty recipes:

Oat biscuits (flapjack cousins)

4 oz butter

4 oz brown sugar

6 oz rolled aats

6 oz flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tbsp milk

1. set oven to 300F gas mark 2, and grease baking sheets/trays
2. cream butter and sugar together in bowl
3. add oats and sift in flour+bicarb, mix thoroughly
4. add sufficient milk to make a stiffish dough
5. roll out dough thinly on a floured surface, cut into rounds with a 2 inch cutter
6. put on greased baking sheets, bake for approx 20 mins or until golden brown
7. cool on wire rack

Oaty Crumbles

2 oz caster sugar

I generous tablespoon of golden syrup or black treacle if preferred

4 oz butter

4 oz self-raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

4 oz rolled oats

oatmeal for sprinkling

1. set oven to 350F gas mark 4, and grease a 7 inch cake tin

2. melt sugar, syrup and butter in a saucepan then remove from heat

3. sift flour and salt into a bowl and add oats

4. pour cooled syrup mixture onto dry ingredients

5. mix well, press evenly into the cake tin and sprinkle over oatmeal

6. bake for 20-25 mins until light golden brown

7. mark into slices, then allow to cool in tin

8. turn out and break up on a wire rack

Oatcakes

1 lb very fine oatmeal

1 tbsp melted fat (butter or margarine – but if you want to be authentically Scottish, lard or bacon fat)

pinch of salt

1 small tsp baking soda

warm water

1. pour oatmeal into a roomy bowl
2. add the rest of the ingredients
3. add water slowly but handle the dough quickly (otherwise the mixture might become crumbly)
4. mix and knead well to make a pliable dough
5. sprinkle oatmeal onto work-surface, turn dough onto it and sprinkle with more oatmeal
6. roll dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch
7. brush off any loose oatmeal and cut into triangles or quarters
8. cook on a fairly hot griddle and turn over when brown to cook other side
9. if necessary finish in a hot oven

Delicious for breakfast or spread with butter