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
2 Responses to “GREAT OATCAKES RECIPE”
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A Greener Tea
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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.