I first made these biscuits to take sailing; as well as being delicious the sugar gives an immediate energy boost and the oats which are high in complex carbohydrates and soluble fibre release energy slowly. I have been making these biscuits for years, coming back to the recipe again and again, but until last night had never thought of adding seeds to them. A mix of sunflower and pumpkin seeds adds more crunch and omega3s and other vitamins to these oat packed biscuits. Not just for sailing; the tin of these I bought to work this morning rapidly vanished to great approval. Although one of my favourites I want to work on the recipe to bring down the fat content and to add some fruit or vegetables.
This recipe is very forgiving and the quantities are not exact, vary the flour and oat ratio according to taste – this time I used a flour and okara mix to use up my leftover okara from the tofu making. Like my muffin recipe you make the mix by mixing wet ingredients into dry.
Crunchy Oat Sailing Biscuits (makes about 24 biscuits)
Wet Ingredients
4oz soft margarine
3oz sugar (I used half white and half Demerara)
1 tbs golden syrup (Fuss Free tip – run hot water over the spoon you use for the syrup – it will then easily slide off)
Dry Ingredients
4oz porridge oats
4oz plain flour (I used 3oz of flour and 1 oz of okara)
1oz sunflower seeds
1oz pumpkin seeds
1tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
Weigh the wet ingredients into a saucepan and melt on a low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Meanwhile mix all the dry ingredients well into a bowl. When the margarine is melted stir the wet ingredients into the dry and mix thoroughly. If necessary add more oats until you have a firm and not sticky dough.
Place teaspoon sized balls of the dough on a greaseproof paper covered baking tray and flatten slightly; allow room to spread – the baked biscuits will be around 2 ½” (6cm) across. Bake at GM4/350F/180C for 15mins or until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly and firm up before peeling from the paper before leaving to cool on a wire rack.
These should keep a week in an airtight tin, but I usually never have any left after a few days.
These sound delish! I love anything with oats…I eat oatmeal every morning, usually with stewed apples or apple sauce. The pumpkin and sunflower seeds sound like a great addition. I might use some spelt flour for the flour part. MMM.
What a great idea to use spelt Elle, I have only just started cooking with spelt and am delighted to discover that Waitrose has wholegrain spelt flour!
[...] week the ingredient is cashews and I have reworked my oaty biscuit recipe to include them, chewy cranberries give contrast to the crisp biscuits and look like jewels [...]