May 1, 2010
Oatmeal Bars
Oatmeal is a favorite of mine. I’ll add diced apples and cinnamon with honey or Splenda. What I really love though are heavy, tummy filling, oat bars that are so common in Scotland. When I was there hiking in the Highlands so many summers ago, the group I was with brought them along with us on our daily excursions. Scottish oat cakes are something I craved when I got back on U.S. soil and they’re bang easy to make and with a tweak of a few key ingredients they fit right into your eating plan.
You will need:
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup light brown sugar Splenda
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups soy or oat flour (save a little for dusting work surface)
1/4 cup chilled vegan margarine, cut into pea sized pieces (give or take)
3/4 cup soy milk or nonfat buttermilk
As you can see this is basically a biscuit recipe. At this point gathering your ingredients you can decide if you would like to add any dried fruits such as cherries, blueberries or cranberries. Or nuts, such as almonds, or pecan pieces. Or spices like ginger and cinnamon. They are good just as they are with a bit of jam on top.
To bake:
Pre-heat your oven to 325°F. Make sure the racks are set a few inches apart near the center of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
In a mixing bowl, stir together the oats, brown sugar Splenda, baking soda, and salt (also if adding spices or dried fruits, or nuts, now would be a good time to toss them in). Place the oat flour in a separate bowl. Add the small pieces of shortening, and rub it into the oat flour with your fingers until the mixture is crumbly just like making biscuit dough. Then add the two together, mixing by hand until incorporated. Then add the soy milk or non buttermilk, stirring well to combine.
Dust a clean work surface with some extra oat flour, then pat the dough to roughly 10×8-inch rectangle 1/4-inch thick. The dough will be sticky and you can work it a bit to get it to form. Dust additional flour on top of the dough as needed to form a rectangle. Use a knife or a 1″ biscuit cutter to cut the dough into circles or triangles. With a spatula, gently transfer the oat cakes to the lined baking sheet. Pat out the remaining scraps into another 1/4″ thick rectangle, and repeat the process until all of the dough is cut. Bake the oat cakes for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they are a light brown. Let the cakes cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. This makes about 24 oat cakes. If you like you can freeze half of the dough until you want to make more. Just thaw to room temperature before baking. Another thing you could do instead of hand forming the dough like a scone or biscuit, is to spray some olive oil into a baking pan, an 8×10 for example and spread out the dough with a spatula and bake that way. Cutting before or after.
These are great in the morning, or pop into a zip-lock for a snack, or as a dessert with a scoop of granita and fresh berries.
