RSSGREAT OATCAKES RECIPE
December 8, 2007
A beautiful treat
Hello, my name is Christine, and I hate cooking
OK, it ain’t no secret. I don’t enjoy cooking. I take a lot of shortcuts to get it done as fast as possible. There are many who cannot even be in the kitchen with me, so blatantly do I corrupt the rules. I apologize in advance to those who will be offended by my disregard for even the most basic cooking conventions.
I cook everything on high heat. I seldom separate dry and wet ingredients. I hardly ever use salt; I don’t like it and I never take it at the table. If you would feel better adding a few extra steps to the following recipe, please feel free to go ahead.
3 years to perfect the recipe
I made this recipe up myself. I really like homemade oatmeal cookies but I don’t want the calories, and I want to be able to add extra healthy stuff. My children have no idea how much wheat germ and ground flax seed they eat, and I don’t tell them.
I began with a good oatmeal cookie recipe from the LooneySpoons cookbook (it’s on page 88, called Three Strikes, You’re Oat!) (so, I didn’t make it up entirely myself).
Every time I made it, I added less sugar and butter, and more flax/oat bran/wheat germ till I arrived at a cookie that tastes just fine.
How much sugar and salt you like are all about what you’re used to, and surprisingly easily changed. When you’re not used to eating a lot of sugar, this cookie will feel like dessert. The bonus is that you’ll be so regular, you won’t know what hit you.
The oven’s on. Don’t just make 12!
As part of my get-out-of-the-kitchen-fast strategy , I never make 1 dozen cookies. I make 4 dozen. I’ve got all the ingredients out anyway. I make this batch about once a month, freeze the extra, and bring out a few at a time. That way, I won’t have a fit and eat 12 at one time because I’m feeling sorry for myself for one reason or another.
Great Oatcakes with a Huge Health Kick
Ingredients – you’ll be making a trip to the Bulk Food Warehouse
- 8c. large flake oats ( the only low-glycemic-load oats)
- 3 1/2c. spelt flour (an ancient grain ; try it instead of whole wheat; or just use whole wheat)
- 3 tsp. baking soda
- 2c. oat bran
- 1c. sesame seeds (or less if that’s just too seedy)
- 1 c. soft butter (I’m not a margarine person, even the No TransFat kind; too many chemicals I don’t recognize).
- 2c. brown or Demerara sugar
- 1 and 1/4 c. plain 1% or 2% yogurt or buttermilk
- 3 tsp vanilla
Instructions
1. Dump everything in a your biggest bowl in no particular order. If you’re feeling nervous about this freewheeling recklessness, you can add the dry stuff after the wet and mix it around a little before the next step.
2. Squish it with your hands till it’s all mixed and crumbly. It will seem quite dry. To make the cookie shapes, pick up a small handful of the mixture and squish it very hard so it holds a ball shape. Children are very handy for this job because they can squeeze their hardest and it only works better.
3.If you think the mixture is just hopelessly dry and crumbly, add a little more buttermilk or yogurt or unsweetened applesauce or mashed banana or whatever you need to get rid of, till it holds a shape in the way you like. Flatten the ball just slightly with the last squish and put it on the cookie sheet. These do not spread much so you can crowd them till they’re almost touching. 36 cookies on one cookie sheet ; now that’s my kind of baking.
4. Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 F for about 18 minutes. If it turns out to be 15 minutes, or 25 minutes, it doesn’t really make a big difference. Let them cool on the cookie sheet before transferring to a drying rack or they’ll crumble too much. Then you will have a nice topping for ice cream or yogurt, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Isn’t that a nice picture up there? Oh, wait! This blog is about the real world. This is what it really looks like.
Make cookies once a year. Freeze, thaw, serve.
Don’t fuss over calories (and don’t eat 7 at once)
I can’t tell you the calories because I don’t count them. It serves no great purpose except making you irritable and obsessed with the wrong thing. Become fixated on making sensible decisions about foods and movement instead.
Comments
8 Responses to “GREAT OATCAKES RECIPE”
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I love the way in which this is written. Just getting into baking and always looking for low GL versions of good cookies and other yummies.
Well done and thanks!
Hi, Lorraine,
Glad you enjoyed the post. I’m not sure everyone would agree that these could be called “yummies”, but I think they are.
At least I can always promise low GL.
Hi there, I will try your oat cakes today. I am looking for low GL stuff and most of all, is there a book on common foods with both the GI and GL? I would love to have that. I am on a low GL trip right now and losing weight nicely. Thanks!
Hi, Chrissie,
I’m sure you can find both GI and GL info in the same reference. I’ve seen it online at various sites, if you google it. David Mendosa has a lot of good info. I don’t follow GI very much because I find it less useful for the foods I really eat like fruit, vegetables, and grains. The ease of the weight loss is great, isn’t it? You can eat these foods every 4 hours, till you just can’t face eating yet again, and you still lose weight. What I love best is how you de-swell. I don’t enjoy feeling or looking puffy and these foods clear that out amazingly well.
Hi Christine,
My name is Dara and I love cooking . . . sort of. I tend to take shortcuts just like you – mix wet and dry together at once (easier on my time when the kids are underfoot, less mess, and better for the environment if you think about washing all those dishes). I also do a *LOT* of substituting. And I hardly ever actually measure. Oh and I’m one of those people who always ruins the icing because I don’t wait long enough for the cake to cool before I ice it . . . .
I love the way this recipe looks. I’ve been wanting to try my hands at oatcakes for a while now. My son’s birthday is coming up next week and I thought instead of cupcakes or rice krispies, I’d send oatcakes in for recess. I know my kids love them when we buy them at the local coffee shop.
BUT I can’t put in the sesame seeds as it’s a nut/seed free school. I was thinking it would be nice to try adding fruit – like blueberries. Have you ever done that? The batch for his class I also planned on making a yogurt icing for, but this recipe by itself would be great for when I get a snack attack!
Hi, Dara,
Sounds like you and I are the same kind of cooks!
I make these mostly for myself. My kids find them a little crumbly. If you added more butter or honey or sugar, they’d be fine. They’d be easier to shape too. As they are, I roll them into tight little balls and then flatten them a little to keep them together. I’ve modified most of my recipes to be as low sugar and low fat as possible.
I have never added fruit but can’t see why you couldn’t. Maybe dried cranberries or cherries, but dry fruit might make them crumblier. Icing would be fine.
Like you, I keep them for snack times. Problem is, I still can eat 6 at a time, so I keep them frozen. That doesn’t necessarily help because I’ve decided I like them even better frozen. My own worst enemy.
Yup,
I think I’ll try adding some maple syrup and dried blueberries. I’ll just seperate out a smaller batch to do it with as I like your version.
I bet they would be good frozen. Especially with some chocolate between two of them!
Oh well, good intentions count for something, right??\
Maple syrup is a great idea because it’s liquid. It would make them less crumbly which is the most limiting part of these suckers. Have fun experimenting!