Now, I don’t actually know Mawbroon in person as I met her on Mumsnet, but my spider senses suggest to me that she might be Scottish…
Here is her recipe, but I intend to quiz her further on the nature of the oatmeal. Pinhead? Porridge Oats? Not sure at this stage, will report back.
Anyway, here goes.
8oz oatmeal
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 dessertspoonful of melted fat, (the recipe suggests butter or lard but Mawbroon’s natural inclination is to rebelliousness so she uses olive oil)
hot water
a good pinch of salt would be nice but unfortunately it is frowned upon because of the babies’ kidneys and all that blah blah blah.
Mix all the dry ingredients together with a well in the middle and pour in the fat. Blend in enough hot water to make a stiff paste then knead and roll out as thinly as possible. Cut into triangles and bake on a floured tin at 200 degrees until the ends curl up and the cakes are crisp. Alternatively, bake them on a hot girdle or frying pan.
Now, that’s what the recipe says, but what Mawbroon does is take little blobs of the mix and flattens them into fat little oatcakes. So, they are rustic looking and not thin enough to curl up when cooked. Apparently little helpers can help because the mix cools very quickly even though you use hot water.
Update. Mawbroon says:
“I just use “normal” oatmeal but pinhead would do as well. Porridge oats could probably be used at a push after a blitz in the food processor, but I’ve never tried it, so don’t blame me if you try it and the oatcakes are vile.
I don’t know about the availability of oatmeal in England for anyone reading who lives there. My sister lives in London and stocks up every time she comes home (to Scotland) for a visit because she claims not to be able to buy it down south. I would have thought that with the fad for whole foods at the moment that it would be readily available, but I’ll take her word for it. I do know that Lakeland sell the Alfords stuff.
Also I forgot to say that the cooking time is somewhere between 20 – 30 mins.”
Hurrah, I was right, she is a Jock. And good to have a cooking time on a recipe, I always find…
Post Script
I made them. They are flipping deeee-licious and really easy. I used medium oatmeal, as my pinhead oatmeal actually seemed to be less finely ground than the medium when I pulled it from the cupboard. Mistakenly, I had thought it would be small, not unlike the head of a pin, but no. Go figure. Also, for the record it’s a straight no on the porridge oats, apparently if you try this recipe with them you will be sadly disappointed.
Anyway, they work great with olive oil I reckon, you can really taste it which is very pleasant, but thinking about it I probably put in a bit more than the recipe called for as my hand has a tendency to wobble when holding any bottle… The no-salt thing isn’t a problem if you are an adult as you are invariably jamming a big wodge of salty cheese on them anyway.
Like Mawbroon, I rolled the mixture into little balls about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, then squashed the little blighters in the palms of my hands to make discs of about one-and-a-half to two inches across. I kept them in for about half-an-hour because I like oatcakes a little golden.
Babybear has had them with hummus and butter, and her strategy has so far been to take a nibble off the edge, which she chews a bit but finds a little dry to be honest. Her next move is to lick the topping off the oatcake at which point it becomes a bit soggier, before returning to it every so often as it becomes more wet. She mustn’t leave it too long, though, as it turns into porridge if it sits on her soggy highchair tray (we’re still getting to grips with drinking from a glass). Obviously it depends how well your baby is doing with gagging and everything, but I definitely don’t think that Babybear would have been able to manage these until quite recently (she’s eight-and-a-half-months). Anyway, thanks again Mawbroon, I think these will be a real favourite in our house for many years to come. Well, they will if my husband has anything to do with it, as he’s eaten nothing else all day.
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