Hugh's homemade oatcakes
Makes 20
150g medium oatmeal
150g porridge oats (but not jumbo oats)
½ tsp fine sea salt
A few twists of freshly ground black pepper (optional)
A small handful of seeds (such as pumpkin, poppy and sunflower)
75ml extra virgin olive, rapeseed or hempseed oil
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the oil into the well, stir and then pour in just enough boiling water (about 150ml) to bind it into a firm dough. Work quickly and don’t worry if you over-water a bit – you can remedy the situation by adding more oatmeal, if necessary.
Shape the dough into a ball and leave it to rest for a few minutes. Roll it out on a lightly floured surface, or between 2 sheets of baking parchment, until about 5mm thick. Cut out rounds with a 6cm biscuit cutter. You can re-roll the offcuts to make more oatcakes but the dough will become increasingly crumbly the more you work it so I like to just bake the off-cut scraps as rustic morsels.
Place the oatcakes on 2 lightly floured baking sheets and bake in an oven preheated to 180C/Gas Mark 4 for 20 minutes. Turn the oatcakes over and bake for a further 10 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
The oatcakes will keep for up to a week in an airtight container.
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