Scottish Oat Cakes

Preheat the oven to 160 C (320 F) and line 4 baking trays with baking parchment.

In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (oats through salt), then rub in the coconut oil until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Now, add in the water, a little at a time. The amount you need will vary with the oats, so be cautious and don’t add too much at once! You can even measure in tablespoons for maximum control. Keep adding water and mixing until a nice dough forms.

Put the dough in the middle of a fairly large wooden board or work surface and begin to press it out and flatten it, then swap over to a rolling pin and roll out to your desired thickness (pretty much anything goes here; it’s just down to personal preference). Then cut out your oat cake shape using a round cookie cutter and lay them out on the baking trays.

Once you’ve rolled, cut and placed once, you’ll notice that the remnants look pretty dry and crumb-like. No worries, pick up the baking parchment and put the dough back in the bowl, add one or two more tablespoons of water, or enough to form a dough again and then repeat the rolling and cutting process.

Bake for 30 minutes, then increase the temperature to 200 C (400 F) and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the edges just begin to brown and they seem crisp. If you prefer your oat cakes a little less crunchy, take them out earlier.

These keep for up to 4 weeks in an airtight container (though I challenge you to make them last that long). But if you’d rather not have them hanging around that long you can freeze the cut-out shapes and then bake them from frozen when you want them, just increase the baking time by 5 or 10 minutes.