Student Cooking Attempt #3: Rough Oatcakes with Hummus and Cranberries

Woo, well I think I just had a triumph with these – they’re amazing! My faither usually whaps out the cheese for his, and although the Pure vegan range also do a really good cheesy style spread, I thought hummus and cranberries would be a nice alternative. I got the recipe from http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/520634/scottish-oat-cakes and once I tasted them I realised how much better oatcakes are when they’re homemade Ohmigawd.

Ingredients:

225g oats
60g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60g Pure vegan butter
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
60-80ml hot water

Pretty easy – I just mixed all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl until it looked like a big bowl of breadcrumbs, then gradually added the water to soften the oats and help everything stick together.

Theeeeen…I got myself a large oven tray and greased it with some more butter. I then dusted it with a fair bit of flour and plopped the whole bowl out onto it. It’s professionalism and care all round as this attractive arrangement demonstrates:

Priviledged individuals will most likely have a rolling pin of sorts in their possession, but if like myself you find yourself lacking in pinnage, rolling a tall cup across the mixture will do as well. I rolled this braw lump until it was about 1/2cm thick, then used the edge of the cup to cut out circle-shaped oatcakes like the epitome of resourcefulness I have been forced to become.

I kept on cutting and reusing the excess dough until I had two large oven trays’ worth of oaty goodjins ready for the sun! The recipe I found said to pop them in for 25-30 minutes at 190 degrees C, but after the slight cremation of my intended flapjacks the other day I thought I’d check on them a lot earlier. Turned out they were deliciously crunchy after just 15. Turned out I was right to check. Yeah.

…And that’s all it took to make these! They are amazingly crunchy and filling, but the best thing about oatcakes is all the different toppings you can try on them. Here’s my hummus and cranberry idea (doit,doit,doit,doit,domyidea).

However, today was also the day I discovered quite possibly the best thing I’ve ever seen in Aldi: Machries Tomato and Chilli Relish Praise for Machries, jeezo. Some of this spread on the crunchy oatcakes was really tangy and spicy, and it reminded me of eating Doritos dunked in hot salsa. I’m thinking of buying the vegan cheesy spread stuff again and having some of it plus a plop of Machries’ finest on top of the next batch of oatcakes I make Oafft, the possibilities!