BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!

Subject: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Will Fly
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 02:43 PM

I've just come back from 3 days in the Potteries (in the middle of the UK) and been revelling in the local delicacies of oatcakes and pikelets. For anyone who's unsure as to what these are, an oatcake is like a pancake or a crepe made with oatmeal, and a pikelet is a smaller, thicker version sweetened with sultanas, currants and raisins.

[Vegans and vegetarians turn away now...].

I've been feasting on a really healthy (!) of oatcakes filled with cheese and Bury black (blood) pudding and, before I left for home this morning, stocked up on oatcake mix and fresh cooked oatcakes for the weekend.

Mmm... waistline? What's that?

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: gnu
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 03:14 PM

It will fly.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Will Fly
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 03:58 PM

LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 04:08 PM

Drooling here, Will...

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: s&r
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 05:20 PM

Funny about naming bread products Will = in the East Midlands Pikelet is the circular bread cake with a lot of holes to soak up butter that is often called a crumpet here in Lancs

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 06:17 PM

Stoke on Trent Oat Cakes are second to none!   I had the pleasure of tasting them in Lincolnshire in 2004.....

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 06:26 PM

recipes?

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: GUEST,Knot a guest
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 07:03 PM

Sorry, recipes for Staffordshire Oatcakes (the capitals are important here) are top secret. The last person to get hold of the recipes in an underhand manner came to a VERY sticky end.

JJ

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 08:00 PM

I love a Staffordhire oatcake, me. But why do they seem to go off faster than any other equivalent bread or crumpet-ty thing?


My preferred way to eat them is with fried bacon, mushrooms, spinach and cheese. You need to leave them a minute so that the hot filling makes the cheese go melty. Yum.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Will Fly
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:22 AM

There are several recipes for oatcakes on the net, but you can order the Staffordshire mix - and variations on the mix, plus other products - from:

Oatcake Kitchen

It's actually a little street corner café and takeaway in a part of Stoke called Dresden, and it does a roaring trade. People come for their filled oatcake orders and carry away huge boxes and bags for lunch. Good, prompt service over the net too - I've tried it.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:55 AM

Here's the almost (but not really) healthy recipe for drop scones (pikelets) that I use - it looks 'heavy' but they are really impossibly moreish!
Mr.C can virtually eat a whole batch - and there's 'loaves and fishes' worth here (isn't there always with pancake batter?)

Sieve 1/2lb Self-Raising Wholemeal Flour into a bowl (add remaining bran)
add 1oz Brown Sugar and 3oz Raisins. Stir.
Create a well in the middle and add 2 Eggs (free-range!) and 1/2pint Skimmed Milk. Beat well.

Oil a HOT frying pan or griddle (I use that rice bran oil for pancakes, as it's so light).
Drop dense tablespoonfuls of batter into the pan (I cook 3 or 4 at a time - though be careful to segregate as the batter *spreads*) and cook for a couple of minutes until bubbles rise to the surface and burst.
As soon as the bubbles burst turn the pancakes over and cook bottom side two or three minutes (till lightly browned).
Pile the cooked pancakes into a tea-towel on a plate kept under a warm grill. Should make about 16 or so - your mileage may vary.

Once all are done, serve still hot with drippy butter (and jam if you must.)

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: GUEST,Silas
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:56 AM

It always amazes me that people outside of my native Staffordshire have hardly heard, let alone tasted, Oatcakes. We grew up with them and are part of our staple diet.

They are not too difficult to make, but you need fresh yeast.

Bacon and cheese is the favourite filling around here.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 05:09 AM

I became addicted when I lived in Lichfield, Silas. I've noticed them creeping out of Staffordshire recently, but not very far. My partner lives in Cheshire, about half an hour from Stoke, and they stock them in the farm shop near his house. I also spotted them in Tescos in Melton Mowbray!

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 06:05 AM

We used to have pikelets but they were much like a crumpet only much thinner. Never tasted oatcakes but they sound good.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: GUEST,Silas
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 06:21 AM

I have to post a weekly supply to my son who is at Uni in Liverpool. He can get them up there but they are not the same apparantly.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Will Fly
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 07:30 AM

Oatcakes were made in Lancashire as well, at one time, and sold by housewives from their front windows on to the street. Men on their way to work would buy them and the extra money supplemented their own men's income. However, it seems that the tradition lasted longer in Staffordshire than elsewhere. I'm told that the pottery workers would keep them warm in the hotting-up or cooling-down kilns.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 10:56 AM

We loved the oatcakes that we could get when we were visiting Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. They were crumbly (rich) and sweet -- but not as sweet as a regular cookie (biscuit). I think they were about 3/8 inch thick, and 4 inches in diameter. Others that we found elsewhere were dryer and plainer.

How would you characterise the oatcakes that you're enjoying?

~ Becky in Tucson (Arizona, USA)

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: GUEST,Silas
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 11:02 AM

Sorry Desert Dancer, they were not oatcakes - anything but from the sound of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 11:04 AM

Bannocks maybe?

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 12:46 PM

Well, they were Cape Breton oatcakes (undoubtedly of Scottish heritage), but apparently a different animal then you all are thinking of. So, describe yours in more detail, please! (And recipe?)

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 02:07 PM

The Cape Breton variety sound similar to the sweet biscuits you get in a selection box of cheese biscuits in the UK.

The Staffordshire oatcake is more akin to a thin pancake or a crepe, but made with oat flour. You roll it up around a filling.

And both sound different from Scottish oatcakes (yum again!), which are a savoury biscuit.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 02:11 PM

Apparently the Cape Bretoners have both sweet and savoury varieties.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 02:14 PM

O.k., sorry, missed the link above with the piccy. Definitely crepe-esque. But then, why yeast if they're so flat??

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: richd
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 02:29 PM

The taste and texture. Yearsted batter also stretches scarce oats at the end of the season. There is an incredible variety of flatbreads made with oats even in the British Isles. Elizabeth David has an entire chapter on them in English (includes Welsh and Scottish) Bread and Yeast Cookery. Oatcakes tend either to be made with a thin yeasted batter- as in the Potteries, or thin well rolled out cakes made with meal, water and a small ammount of fat. These can then either be cooked on a flat bakestone, or in fron of a fire on a small flat stand. They may also (rarely) be oven cooked at a very low heat. Oats have less gluten than wheat so produce very poor quality loaves, flat breads are the best use for them. In fuel poor upland areas ovens were rare, so oatcakes were the 'daily bread'. In Wales, both varieties were cooked, although in South Wales the yeasted variety- often sourdough- were the most common- and cooked on a cast iron bakestone. I was taught to make oatcakes, and crumpets, pikelets and Welshcakes on the Bakestone by my Gran. I inherited her bakestone, which my daughters and I still use for making oatcakes. Best not to be too prescriptive about oatcakes methinks, except to celebrate their role in keeping the materialy poor alive. S. Minwel Tibbott has an interesting chpater on different 'oatcake practices' in Domestic Life in WAles.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Cats
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 08:19 PM

I was at Keele Uni and we used to go out to the oatcake shops. we used to put them in the bottom of the tray and then grill baqcn so all the fat ran into them then rolled the bacon in them. wonderful. I do miss them.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: mandotim
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 07:45 AM

Oatcakes are the staple breakfast here (I live in North Staffordshire). I once spent an entertaining half hour in a Breton creperie trying to compare and contrast oatcakes and savoury breton gallettes.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Will Fly
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 07:50 AM

I once spent an entertaining half hour in a Breton creperie trying to compare and contrast oatcakes and savoury breton gallettes.

Tim, Tim - you really shouldn't write "entertaining" when you mean "fattening"... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 12:51 PM

Not a taste parallel, but parallel in function for the folk in my corner of the world: tortillas. (But since I'm not a native to these parts, the oatcakes sound a little better to me... all except for that idea of soaking them in bacon fat -- yecch!)

But, tortillas are made of a thicker dough which is flattened and fried, rather than a thin batter, and as far as I know, sweet fillings are rare. Indian fry bread (those of you with the bacon fat hankering should experience these) is more likely to have sweet as well as savory uses.

There are similar thin batter pancakes made around the world. I wonder about the use of yeast.

Wickipedia has a nice overview of pancakes/drop-scones (doesn't mention oatcakes, but does mention pikelets -- maybe someone here should add them :-)

Another informative link: Pancakology.

(What did information hounds like me do before the internet?!?)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 12:58 PM

One more random thought thought on non-Staffordshire pancakes, but actually containing oats: my first blender had in it's little recipe book a recipe for pancakes made with some rolled oats that had been buzzed in the blender. They were tender and yummy.

I'm getting hungry!

~B in T

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 02:33 PM

Yes, just as I remembered. :-p (that's licking lips, in this case.)

~ B in T

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 02:42 PM

Go on then! How do you make them...?
I imagine savoury oaty pancakes would be nice with a spinach or leek & blue cheese filling. I've never made savoury filled pancakes - but I must have a go now.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: richd
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 04:32 PM

Pikelets, small pancakes made with thicker batter, risen with baking powder/soda. Thinner than drop scones. Can be made sweet or savory.

Becky- why do you wonder about the yeast? Taste and texture and you can make a viable bread with less cerial. Make it thickish and it's an oat cake. Mkae it thin and it's porridge. Make it thinner and it's beer! (eventualy(!))

I recently came across some amazing Etheopian flatbreads made with rye, barley and a bit of wheat. Soured for about 8 hours, then poured very thin. Overlap on large tray and pour on peanut stew.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 06:14 PM

Well, I personally have never made anything other than regular bread with yeast, and I see it as something adding volume via carbonation, so it is a bit alien to me to think of making a non-rising (or minimally rising) batter item with it. But, I can see the point about the effect on flavor.

Didn't spot it before, but here they are on Wikipedia.

Are some oatcakes spongier than others -- descriptions of Derbyshire ones seem to be?

The pancakes with oat flour I made this morning:

1/2 cup quick-cook rolled oats buzzed in blender to a coarse flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-- combine these dry ingredients

1 cup milk
1 egg
2-3 tablespoons butter, melted
-- beat the egg in the milk, warm the two slightly in the microwave, and beat in the melted butter (they'll all blend better if the milk and egg are not cold)

With a few strokes, mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Cook (about 1/3 cup each) on a hot, lightly-oiled griddle until bubbles are just starting to burst, then turn and cook till lightly browned. Makes 9 4-inch-diameter, 5/8-inch-thick pancakes.

Serve with maple syrup. (No butter needed!)

Probably could have made it half oat flour, half other.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: richd
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 06:41 PM

Yeast also makes the batter lighter- the same as baking powder, but also seems to affect the texture as well. They really do rise a lot, but you spread the batter out. The cakes seem to last longer too before becoming inedable. Blinis are yeasted batters too aren't they? This is the recipe from my grandmother, Winnifred Hughes. She cooked them on a cast iron bakestone on a range. These are yeasted. Sorry about the measurements!

1/4lb fine oatmeal
1/2lb unbleached flour
1/2 oz Bakers Yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 whole egg
a tablespoon or so of buttermilk
1 pint water.

Soak oatmeal overnight in 1pt water
In morning mix buttermilk and yeast.
Put wheat flour in bowl with salt.
Strain oatmeal but keep water.
Mix drained oatmeal with flour, add the egg and the yeast mixture, stir well.
Add about 1/2 the oatmeal water to make a thinish batter- thin enough to drop off the spoon, but not runny.

Leave in a warm place to rise for 2 hrs or so.
when well risen and buubly, drop about a ladle full onto a hot bakestone/ griddle. They should be very thin and about 7 inchs accross. Eat with anything you like.

My daughters love them with butter and jam for breakfast and, I am pleased to say, can cook thier own. I like oatcakes with bacon and cheese!

Later, when I realised this sort of thing was important I found that this recipe is very similar to one in Elizabeth David, P408.

I've also got recipes for Staffordshire oatcakes.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Darowyn
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 04:34 AM

When we lived in Worcestershire, my wife, an exiled 'Potteries Wench' could get something of a respite from her longing for home by eating the Staffordshire oatcakes we could buy in Tesco in Worcester.
Now we have moved back, we can buy the same oatcakes fresh from the very same shop where those oatcakes were made.
It's quite a thing to watch. There is a stainless steel hotplate, about ten feet long, and the batter is in a hopper running along rails at the side of the hotplate. As it is wound along it drops measured amounts of batter on the hotplate.
The operator flips them all by hand, with a spatula, to cook both sides. It takes longer to write about than to do.
Oatcake recipes are widely supposed to be family secrets, passed from generation to generation. Whether this is just a way of restricting competition or whether there really are secret ingredients, I have no idea. We've tried recipes from the internet, but they are never the same, or as nice as fresh ones from the shop where they are made.
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: theleveller
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 05:46 AM

In Yorkshire a pikelet is another name for a crumpet and they are best toasted on an open (preferably log) fire. If you can eat one without the butter dripping down your chin, you haven't put enough butter on.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 10:53 AM

If the batter has to rise for 2 hours, no wonder people buy them in shops! There's a reason they invented baking powder... pancakes in 10 minutes. :-)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 11:11 AM

"The cakes seem to last longer too before becoming inedable."

Staffordshire oatcakes seem to go mouldy in just a few days. I wonder why?

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 11:44 AM

Yeasted breads are a delight to make! Funny how quick bread actually is to prepare, once you discount the rising and proving time (when you do something else). I've not yet made a yeasted pancake, but the fermenty magical scent of fresh yeast bubbling in the mug, makes everything worthwhile. Plus you can use the two hours on a Sunday morn to potter in the garden or write that novel or something.. ;-)
A friend of mine, cold rises his dough in the fridge overnight (or chilly outhouse) so you get the fine crumb of small bubbles, meaning there's no need to knock back and prove. Or something, never tried it myself.
Thanks for reminding me of E. David Richd, a fantastically comprehensive tome - no idea where I've stowed my old volume away though! My bookshelves are a complete mess. Loads in boxes in loft too. Argh! In equal disarray is my a (cough) 'collection' of baking tins - which I began collecting at twelve or so, from jumble sales! Kughelhofs and all-sorts, They really need a sort out.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 07 Dec 09 - 08:50 PM

Don't know that I'd care to eat anything that had spent the night in and outhouse...

:-D

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: GUEST,erbert
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 01:22 AM

is there a trad name for a big bowl of porridge
cooked up with meat and onions and all sorts of veg in it ?

Whatever its called, its a cheap tasty nourishing winter dinner.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 04:45 AM

Pottage 'erbert? I think that's the general term.


DD my brick outhouses (including wash-house & coal hole) also have a loo *attached* (not that I'd use it to rise bread in) - but I'm guessing that's another of those language things between the UK & US!

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: GUEST,richd in work.
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 04:58 AM

Now sourdough oatcakes or breads, that's another matter. Incomparable taste and texture, good keeping properties and all from flour (of various kinds), salt and water. Very slow process though.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 06:28 AM

Sainsbury's tried selling Satffordshire Oatcakes in all their stores, but most tell you they don't exist, then when the are told they can be found in their list they tell you they have never sold them. They have.

So Imagine my surprise in Warwick. I was saying to a friend after looking for them that they don't do them now and a really diligent employee pointed to them. I bought two packs and no bread that weekend.
So if you are at Warwick Festival, go to Sainsbury's and insist they tell you where they are (fancy bread department).

But eat them fairly quickly, certainly try one immediately. Butter and jam or savoury filling, roll them up and enjoy. You will.

Mr Red (A Staffordshire man).

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 12:48 PM

(Crow Sister, I did know about that language disconnect, really! Just thought it was a funny one!)

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 01:08 PM

A recipe for Staffordshire oatcakes on the 'net says that, ancedotally, they were made by soldiers returning from India, trying to imitate the chipaties that they ate there.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Penny S.
Date: 08 Dec 09 - 04:20 PM

I was sure I had posted here to the effect of Sainsbury's having released them to us southerners, and then having withdrawn them, and that I had recipes in a book called "Good Things in England" by an American author. But no, Mr Red has beaten me to Sainsbury's. They make brilliant wraps, and I have also done a dessert by stacking them with apples and raspberries and custard. They can be obtained by post, but I haven't tried that yet, as I have a frozen stash to use up first.

The last branch of Sainsbury's round here with them was a small one attached to a petrol station, in an area where most of the customers were from the Caribbean. Odd.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Dec 09 - 02:19 PM

Thanks to those who posted recipes. I'm going to try some.

I followed the link to Wikipedia. It is interesting to learn that the fanzine for the Stoke Football Club is called the Oatcake.

I salute them.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 10:31 AM

Just spotted this one in the healthy recipes department of the NY Times - American style (no yeast):

Oatmeal Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes

By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN
NY Times December 7, 2009

These are denser than my ordinary whole wheat buttermilk pancakes. Make up a batch, freeze them in packets of three, and thaw in the microwave for a quick, substantial breakfast.

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons canola oil

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1. Combine the milk and rolled oats in a bowl, and set aside.
2. Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.
3. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, then add the buttermilk and whisk together. Then whisk in the vanilla extract and the oil.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and quickly whisk together. Do not overbeat; a few lumps are okay. Fold in the oats and milk. Let sit for one hour, or refrigerate overnight.
5. If necessary, spray the hot griddle with pan spray. Drop by 3 to 4 tablespoons onto the hot griddle. Place six or seven blueberries on each pancake. Cook until bubbles begin to break through, two to three minutes. Turn and cook for about 30 seconds to a minute on the other side, or until nicely browned. Remove from the heat, and continue until all of the batter is used up.
6. Serve hot with a small amount of butter and maple syrup.

Yield: A dozen pancakes.

Advance preparation: You can keep these, well wrapped, in the refrigerator for a few days, or freeze for up to a few months.

Martha Rose Shulman can be reached at martha-rose-shulman.com.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 04:12 PM

The small blueberries are available frozen in our grocery store (western Canada), and we put them in the mix we use. The pancakes end with a bluish tinge, but the result is tasty.

We haven't put rolled oats in pancakes, but your recipe will push us to try them in our mix.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: richd
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 05:03 PM

Desert Dancer that recipe sounds good- although I notice that you've still got to leave it to sit. I wonder why this would be if it doesn' have to rise.

In the interest of completeness here is a Welsh recipe for oatcakes, cooked on a bakestone or hearthstone, which is the complete opposite of complex recipes.

2 cups oatmeal
1 cup warm water
1 tsp salt
2 tsps butter/fat

mix salt and oatmeal. Rub in fat. Pour on water. Knead well. Stretch and roll into sausage shape. Cut into eight pieces and roll into balls. Flatten between palms till wafer thin. Cook slowly on bakestone unitil dry. Eat with butter, bacon and salty cheese. This can be made with any mix of flour- bearly, rye little bit of wheat. Come out like an oat chapatti or if rolled out thin and cooked for long more like a tortilla. Yum.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 06:36 PM

If you're using regular (slow-cooking) rolled oats, the sitting for a while in milk would be so that the oats fully absorb the moisture. Otherwise, if you mixed quickly and cooked, you'd have pretty chewy oats. 'Course, if you're into that, you might not mind... it sure is quite different from your (crispy?) Welsh oatcakes, richd.

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 06:38 PM

and Q, usually when I make plain old blueberry pancakes, I throw the blueberries in at the end of the mixing, and usually more than the recipies call for... does make blue, but tasty pancakes. I suppose the "drop a few berries on top" approach is to prevent the blue batter effect. May also be because the batter is stiffer, and you'd crush the berries a bit in mixing?

Subject: RE: BS: Oatcakes & pikelets - yum!
From: richd
Date: 13 Dec 09 - 07:41 AM

Crispy-ish, deepending on thickness, but definitly to the biscuity end of the spectrum. Most celtic oatcakes tend to be like this, and made of oatmeal, rather than a cooked 'porridge'. Although there are some interesting oven breads mad on a base of sourdough porridge, but that's getting off the point a bit.