The elusive oatcake.

We would like to thank Seb Emina & Malcomb Eggs, authors of the 'The Breakfast Bible' for inspiring this blogpost and letting us borrow this fantastic recipe. We've added a Rude Health twist. 

Nobody knows how the Staffordshire oatcake really came about. It tastes nothing like its Scottish counterpart. In fact the Staffordshire sort has changed my perception of what an oatcake is meant to be. It has the texture of a moist crumpet/pancake amalgamation, and tastes seriously (deliciously) oaty.

Some say that the Staffordshire oatcake came from India? Apparently the men of the North Staffordshire Regiment developed a taste for chapattis during their time there. When the men returned, they tried to duplicate the chapattis they had enjoyed but using local ingredients–and the Staffordshire oatcake / ‘chapatti’ was born.

The more credible story is that when the Industrial Revolution arrived, there was a boom in the number of hungry potters in the Stoke-on-Trent area so rural cooks had to make the most of the local Pennines oats.

The exact recipe varies between oatcake shops and was for many years a closely guarded secret. There would be an oatcake shop on nearly every street corner years ago. Not just selling the oatcakes but also hot filled oatcakes. The sale of these flat oaten pancakes became a thriving industry, with oatcakes being sold out of holes in the walls of city kitchens. This was British street food before the Golden Arches came about.

Nowadays the Staffordshire dinner-plate-sized oatcake is very hard to find, but it is possible to make a good approximation at home, using wholemeal flour, fine-ground oatmeal, yeast, water and milk.

It seemed obvious to try and incorporate Nick’s oatmeal into this recipe. Finding and developing recipes with which we can use our foods has become a bit of an obsession here at Rude Health. We have come up with quite a few and are sharing them all on our new recipe page.

To get you started, here’s the Rude Health version of the Staffordshire Oatcake using no more than five ingredients. ♯counton1hand


This recipe makes 6 oatcakes

Ingredients

110g Rude Health Oatmeal

110g wholemeal flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sugar

3.5g (a half sachet) dried instant yeast

210ml warm milk

210ml water



Method

1.     Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, and add the liquids.

2.     Whisk until you have a smooth batter the consistency of double cream. It will seem a little thin, but the oatmeal will swell, making it thicker.

3.     Leave it covered with a clean tea towel in a warm place for 1 hour, until the batter is thick and frothy.

4.     Heat a heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat, and coat the surface of the pan with oil, using a piece of kitchen paper to wipe off any excess.

5.     Add one ladle of mixture, and tilt the pan so that it is evenly spread. Cook for 2–3 minutes on a medium heat, until the surface is covered in bubbles and the underside is brown. Flip and cook for another 2–3 minutes. Keep an eye on the heat, as the oatcakes need to cook through without burning.

6.     Serve hot, rolled around the filling of your choice. If you have any spares they will reheat well between two plates over a pan of boiling water.