Oatcake Recipe Testing 1... 2...

Have you ever come across a recipe that sounded so yummy you had to go straight home and make it right away? Only you were missing a couple of the ingredients so you put it off for a day or so. Which turned into a couple of weeks. (sigh) Then finally the day arrived when you just said, "Screw it, I'm making this dang recipe and I'll make substitutions if I have to." Though you were pretty sure you had everything. Except enough maple syrup!!! Ugh. Among other things! Well it turns out that "ljussirap" (light syrup) works fabulously and then using brown sugar (the light variety) instead of white sugar provided just the right amount of caramel-y flavor that you decide this will now be your adaptation of the original recipe.

And by the way? The author of the recipe said it would make twelve muffins but it produced slightly more. I sort of thought 3 cups of oats + 2 cups of flour + at least a cup of wet ingredients sounded like way more than 12 muffins, but I went along with it. In fact I only prepared a twelve muffin tin and when I figured out I had enough batter for several more, I was scrambling with my lame glove-covered left hand (index finger coated in sticky oat batter) trying to pull more muffin liners out of the baking drawer without getting batter everywhere. Because who would think to remove said glove first?! 

One thing I discovered is that a) you don't actually need a muffin tin, the paper muffin liners hold their shape enough that you can just stick then directly into the oven, right onto your wire rack even, and they bake up just fine, and b) the muffin tin ACTUALLY helps the muffins cook evenly and they brown more in the tin. Go figure, my observations cancelled each other out! 

All things considered, these oatcakes turned out pretty darn tasty. Below is my adaptation of the original recipe. 

Oatcakes (Adapted from Heidi Swanson's recipe)

(Swedish ingredients in parentheses)

3 cups / 10.5 oz / 300 g rolled oats (havregryn)

2 cups / 8 oz / 225 g spelt flour (dinkelmjöl)

1/2 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder (bakpulver)

2 teaspoons salt 

1/4 cup / 1.5 oz / 45 g crushed flax seeds (krossade linfrön)

3/4 cup / 3 oz / 85 g walnuts, lightly toasted & chopped (Valnötter)

1/3 cup / 2.5 oz / 70 g extra-virgin coconut oil 

1/3 cup / 3 oz / 85 g unsalted butter (Or salted butter and reduce amount of salt by 1/2 tsp)

3/4 cup / 180 ml light syrup (ljussirap)

1/2 cup / 2.5 oz / 70 g light brown sugar (muscovado socker)

2 large eggs, lightly beaten 

Preheat the oven to 325°F / 160°C with a rack in the top third of the oven. Line a 

standard 12-cup muffin pan (and possibly have some additional muffin liner cups handy for extra batter)

Combine the oats, flour, baking powder, salt, flax seeds, and walnuts in a large mixing 

bowl. 

In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine the coconut oil, butter, light syrup,

brown sugar and slowly melt together. Stir just until the butter melts and sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for approximately five minutes. 

Pour the melted sugar and oil mixture over the oat mixture. Stir a bit with a fork, add the eggs, and 

stir again until everything comes together into a wet dough (mine was very thick!). Spoon dough into muffin cups, nearly filling them. 

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges of each oatcake are deeply golden. Remove the 

pan from the oven and let cool for a couple minutes. Remove muffins from tin and place onto a cooling rack to cool further. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Makes 12 17 [caramelized buttery] oatcakes :-) 

But who's complaining?! Deliciousness multiplied! It's a win win. 

Ps. Can you believe it is already Thursday??! Sorry this is my first post this week... it's been particularly dark, cold, and wintry these past few days... these muffins definitely helped cheer me up! :-)