Cracked Black Pepper Oatmeal Crackers

This recipe is inspired, as a lot of mine are, by Heidi at 101cookbooks.com. I altered some of the ingredients and played with the flour a bit to get this lovely creation. The pepper is perfect and mixed with the touch of sugar, the sweet and the savoury, the topping possibilities are endless. Personally, I loved them with some leftover Christmas cranberry chutney but I think a hearty mature cheddar would be just as perfect.

Homemade crackers are tricky, especially with our little Beko-POS-oven. The most difficult part is rolling the dough out thinly enough to get a crispy cracker, rather than a cakey biscuit. It took a lot of flour and a lot of elbow grease but I think mine came out right.

Either way, I did something right. I brought a batch to work and they were gone by lunch! Normally I have cakes sitting out on my desk all day and have to either bring the remaining home, or force them on people but not today. I'll have to bring in the rest tomorrow.

I think the rye flour is key here. It adds the savoury to the sweet of the oats and mixes well with the pepper. I used a mix of spelt flour and buckwheat instead of wholemeal but when I rolled the dough out, I floured the surface with wholemeal. Go with what you have in the cupboard. Plain would work just as well.

1 cup oats

360ml milk, heated to boiling

55g softened butter

4tbsp demerara sugar

3 tsp baking powder

2 tsp crushed black peppercorns

1/2 tsp sea salt

155g rye flour

190g wholemeal flour
salt to sprinkle

Mix oats with boiling milk. Let cool (you can put it in the freezer if you're short on time)

Stir in all wholemeal flour when the oats have cooled. Mix together well. Add wholemeal flour until a dough forms (you may need more or less than what's called for).

Pour the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until the dough is uniform.

Preheat the oven to 425F/245C/gas 8-9. Roll out the dough as thinly as you can. Cut into shapes of your choice. Sprinkle with salt Big flaky salt is better but go with what you have.

Bake about 9 minutes or until the bottom is just golden. Turn over and bake another 5 minutes or until crisper and golden.

Let cool to crisp up even more.

They were perfect spread with jams/chutneys/nut butter and a cup of Redbush tea for some sunday afternoon blogging!

Four-grain Granola Scones

I bought a bag of buckwheat flour yesterday for Sunday brunch, which is not this post but the next (I promise!) The recipe for the brunch didn't call for much so I started doing some research into other uses for buckwheat. Pancakes and blinis are obvious but I was in the mood for a good scone.

So did some hunting, came out with a good base and made my own little alterations.

These are quite morish and a little on the dry side, which is what you want out of a scone. They are yummy on their own with a little butter or could be piled high with jam or a nut butter of some kind. I have a jar of cashew butter in the cupboard begging to be eaten.

I didn't have any granola so I used muesli, which is sort of similar in my head. If you don't have either, oats could be substituted, with perhaps a little chopped nuts and some dried fruit for added flavour

Don't worry about the variety of flours. Mix and match, as long as you keep the measurements right. This is just what I had on hand to use. Rice flour, tapioca flour, cornmeal, polenta, could all be subbed. And this could be made wheat and/or gluten free if you wish. Worship at the alter of altering recipes.

1/2 cup wholewheat flour

1/3 cup spelt flour

1/4 cup rye flour

1/4 cup wheatgerm

2/3 cup buckwheat

1/4 cup demerara sugar

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup chilled butter, in pieces. (this is 80g butter for the brits)

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup granola or muesli

Mix together flours, sugar and baking powder. Cut in butter with pastry cutter or blender. You can also rub it in by hand. You want it looking like breadcrumbs.

Mix together milk, egg and vanilla. Stir into flour mix until it forms a sticky dough. Pour onto floured surface. Knead in granola until all mixed together.

You can roll the dough out and cut rounds or you can drop the dough by

spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.

Bake at gas 6 until slightly golden on the bottom. Due to the nature of the flours, the tops won't turn golden. Mine took about 10-15 but our oven is screwy. So just watch. These are another that burnt bottoms will seriously alter the taste. Be careful! If they are cooking too fast, turn the heat down.

nom nom nom...

Multigrain Bread

It's pretty simple. What is one thing no one hates the smell of? Baking bread. It smells of comfort. It also smells of really, really good bread.

I decided to spend a day baking bread not just because it will make the house smell fantastic or because, well, I like bread. Actually I wanted to bake something for our friend's who had a baby the other day. With an infant AND a toddler, sometimes the last thing you want to think about is running to the shop for bread. Add a jar of homemade jam to the bag and they're all set.

I actually doubled the recipe so we can keep a loaf, and as you can see from below, it made more than just a loaf!

1 tbsp active dried yeast

2 0z lukewarm water

70g rolled oats

16oz (450ml) milk

2 tsp salt

2oz oil

55g brown sugar

2 tbsp honey

2 eggs, lightly beaten

30g wheat germ

3oz spelt flour

3oz rye flour

350g wholemeal flour

420-490g strong white flour

Combine the yeast and water, stire and leave for 15 minutes until dissolved and frothy

Put the oats in a large bowl. Scald the milk and pour over the oats. Stir in the salt, oil, sugar and honey. Leave until lukewarm

Stir in the yeast mixture, eggs, wheat germ, spelt, rye and wholemeal flours. Gradually begin to add the white flour until it's a rough dough.

Pour onto a floured surface and knead about 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Add more flour if sticky. Put in oiled bowl, cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise until doubled. Mine took about 2 hours.

Grease your bread tins (about 2). If making rolls, grease a roasting tin. If making plait, grease a baking sheet. Punch down the dough and knead briefly. Form into desired shape.

If loafs, one option is to divide the dough into quarters. Roll each quarter into a 3cm thick cylinder. Twist together two cylinders. Put the twists into the tins (will make 2 twists, i.e. 2 loaves).

If plaited loaf, divide dough into two first. The divide each half into 3. Roll into long logs and plait together. This will give you two plates (note, if making plates, the bottoms are more prone to burning. Adjust baking time accordingly.)

If making rolls, the entire recipe will make about 20 larger rolls so make sure you have enough roasting tins (or make half rolls and half loafs or plaits). Roll out to long log and cut even pieces. Roll into balls and place into roasting tin. Make sure they aren't touching as they will rise again.

Cover lightly with cling film and leave to rise until doubled again, about an hour.

Preheat to gas mark 5. Bake 40-50 minutes or until golden crust. When you knock the bottom of the bread, it should sound hollow when done. Leave to cool.