Oat (Bran) Cakes

If you want something in your diet with a bit of crunch then this recipe couldn't be simpler. When I've not used up my oat bran allowance for the day, I often do my duty by making these at the end of the evening and have them with a pre-somnial glass of skimmed milk.

The Ingredients

• 30 grams of oat bran
• 30 grams (= 30 ml but weight it, it's more accurate) of freshly boiled water from the kettle.
• A pinch of salt (optional)

The Equipment

• A small mixing bowl
• A teaspoon or fork
• A rolling pin
• A microwave
• Baking parchment or a non-stick microwaveable surface of some kind
• Digital kitchen scales that can measure in grams

The Method

Boil a kettle. Place the mixing bowl on the scale and weight out 25 grams of oat bran, reserving 5 grams for rolling out. Add salt at this point if you wish and mix into the oat bran. Pour in 25 grams of freshly boiled water and work the water into the oat bran with the tea spoon. After a minute, you will end up with a sticky dough ball which will become dryer as you work it and the oat bran absorbs more of the available fluid.

When it's a consistency that looks like it will roll out, dust a board and a rolling pin with some of the remaining 5 grams of dry oat bran. Roll out the dough ball, turning it and redusting occasionally, until it is about 2-3 millimetres thick. It will tend to go ragged at the edges and you could use a cutter to make nice rounds but personally I prefer to leave it as a single, raggedy edged cake as I like to snap it into pieces after cooking.

Once it is rolled to the correct thickness, lift it (in pieces if necessary) onto the baking parchment, place in the microwave and zap it on high for about 2 minutes. My microwave is an 800 watt so you might want to increase the time if you have a lower power machine. Once it is done, remove from the microwave and leave to cool for a few minutes.When it comes out it should be hot and still slightly damp but give it a minute or two and it will go nicely hard and crunchy.

You should now have a mis-shapen but crisp expanse of 'cake' which has the surface area and thickness equivalent of about 3 to 4 traditional, shop-bought oatcakes. Pour yourself a glass of semi-skimmed milk, snap the cake it into pieces and consume with gusto!

Sometimes I spread these with a little fromage frais and sometimes I have them plain.  I always have a drink with them as they are a pretty solid and dense dose of oat bran. Given its capacity to absorb fluid, I worry that if I eat these without a drink then the semi-digested mass might set solid and cause a blockage somewhere on its way through (are you allowed to say things like that in a recipe?)

Regarding storage and variations, as long as they have dried out properly I see no reason why these wouldn't last a few days in a biscuit tin but I make these on demand so the longest shelf-life I can honestly testify to would be about half an hour and they only lasted that long because I was distracted by a phone call. I presume they could also be oven baked in perhaps 15 to 20 minutes but I have never bothered testing this out. The microwave does a stirling job and the big advantage of zapping these is the fact that the total time from desire to satisfaction is generally under 10 minutes.

Enjoy!