Oat biscuits

Someone suggested that eating oats might be beneficial to me, where oats have a high fiber content and a reasonably low potassium content. At first, the only way that I thought that oats might be consumed is via porridge, and that's not really an option on the summer. Then I considered oat biscuits, and when I saw how easy (and cheap) it would be to make my own, I started looking at recipes.

I admit that I'm not a baker: in my years of cooking prior to 1980, I had never baked a cake. I started baking cakes when I was in the army so that I would have something to eat on weekend guard-duty, but these were hardly high cuisine cakes, and I stopped immediately after I left the army. Baking requires more exact quantities than my usual play-it-by-eye style of cooking, which is a good reason why I don't bother. But it seems that oat biscuits are more forgiving.

The first recipe that I tried had a large amount of flour (as well as oats, of course) and some butter. This recipe annoyed me because the quantities were in cups as opposed to metric units. I made the mix, placed quantities on the tray, put the tray in the oven and waited 10 minutes. I checked a biscuit and it seemed too soft, so I baked for another 10 minutes; again, the result was too soft, so I baked for yet another 10 minutes, then took the tray out of the oven. The biscuits were very big, so I cut them in half then froze them. The results were so-so.

The second recipe that I tried also has quantities in cups, which is suprising as it is an Israeli recipe. I made some substitutions in the ingredients and the results (after 15 minutes baking) were reasonably good. So I repeated this recipe yesterday afternoon and baked a new batch.

Steps:

Break an egg into the mixing bowl and whisk it. Add a quarter of a cup of canola oil and mix. Then add the following dry ingredients: one cup of oats, one table spoonful of flour (I used spelt flour), one table spoonful of blackcurrant jam (providing sweetness and flavour), two table spoonfuls of apple puree and a handful of sultanas. Mix everything together, then using the spoon, place quantities on an oven tray covered with paper. The above quantity makes 11-13 biscuits. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 180°C (I turned the heat off after 10 minutes; I don't know how much the oven cools down in five minutes, but I can save on electricity).

The biscuits look ok but I haven't tasted one of this batch yet. As there are no preservatives used, I put them in the freezer and each day take out a few.