I love oatcakes, however I’m not so keen on the price tag. When you figure how cheap the ingredients are, I’m not quite sure how the price is justified.

Also, freshly made oatcakes are a cut above the ones you buy in the supermarket. Still ever so slightly warm from the pan, they are delicious with butter, cheese or pate. If you need a sweet fix, try them instead with peanut butter, honey, jam or marmalade. Scrummy.

These are great to make when camping too. Pre-mix all the dry ingredients in a ziploc bag before you go, adding the water & fat when you’re ready and gently dry frying over an fire. They taste even better this way than cooked at home.

When it comes to the oats, they ideally need to be medium or fine oatmeal. All this means is that the oats have been ground. It’s much cheaper to buy porridge oats (or whatever is cheapest where you live) and use the food processor to grind them however you want them. I prefer slightly rough oatcakes, so I left mine with a fair bit of texture.

Oatcakes

250g medium or fine oatmeal

A good pinch of Bicarb of Soda (Baking Soda)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp melted lard or bacon fat

4-5 tbsp hot water

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the fat and enough hot water to mix it all into a stiff dough (if you’re doing this for the campfire, mix it all in the ziploc bag and you won’t have to get your hands dirty)

Knead it into a smoothish ball, then roll out until about 3 or 4mm thick. Dusting the board with more oatmeal will help it not stick.

Cut up into pieces, I used a glass to get mine round, but let your imagination take over.

Pick each one up by sliding a palette knife underneath, and pop on a preheated, lightly greased griddle or heavy frying pan. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the edges just start to curl up and the bottom is lightly golden.

Flip over and repeat for 5 minutes on the other side. Let cool on a cooling rack.

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