Do you ever buy a particular ingredient for a recipe, make the recipe and then end up left with the rest of the ingredient and no inclination to make the initial dish a second time quite so soon after? The other scenario is that you end up being completely unable to remember for what you originally bought them although when going around the supermarket they absolutely had to make their way into the trolley. I can tell you right now that I have been victim to both of these scenarios and unfortunately on more than one occasion. Is this a symptom of ageing or having kids?! Or is it a combination of the two?! Either way it is frustrating.
I bought some poppy seeds a while ago. I can’t remember their initial purpose and the packet was open so I must have used them for what I intended. As I was taking stock of our pantry, which isn’t messy –
it is organised chaos, I found them and started to wonder what I could make with them. My initial thought was to combine them with lemon in something. But, while looking at my list of ideas of things I would like to make with the kids oatcakes jumped out at me. Then I realised that we also had some parmesan left in the fridge from making pesto and decided to combine the two. I also like the alliteration of parmesan and poppy seed! The latter was, of course, a big factor!
Ingredients
- 250g rolled oats
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/4tsp paprika
- Pinch of salt
- 30g poppy seeds
- 50g grated parmesan
- 1tbsp melted butter
- 190-220ml boiling water
Method
This recipe will make approximately 35 oatcakes with a 58mm round cutter.
-
According to Ophelia, the dragon was going to help too. Preheat the oven to 180°c fan and line two baking trays with silicone mats or greaseproof paper.
- Put the oats, salt, bicarbonate of soda, paprika, poppy seeds and parmesan into a bowl and mix until combined.
- Make a well in the centre and add the melted
butter and mix with a wooden spoon. - Pour in the boiling water as much as you need to bring the dough together. We used 220ml. I poured the boiling water in and we mixed it with a wooden spoon initially. Then I checked its temperature and when it was a bit cooler we used our hands to bring it together fully.
Flour your surface and the rolling pin and roll out the oatcake mixture as thin as you can (some bits of ours were thinner than other bits) and cut out biscuits with the cutter.- Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the edges are becoming golden-brown and the oatcakes are firm to the touch (they will harden as they cool).
- Transfer to a cooling rack to fully cool.
It seems that Ophelia thought that the oatcake was playdough as she insisted on poking and prodding it while cutting out the rounds. I can understand why she thought that, and I didn’t begrudge her a bit of time doing that and she didn’t have the patience or concentration to cut out all the rounds on her own.
These oatcakes were popular with all the children. I even managed to polish of quite a few when the kids had gone to bed. They taste great with extra cheese oh and pickle, I really love pickle!
