These Easy 5-Ingredient Crackers Are Scottish Grandma–Approved

Whenever my husband and I travel to Scotland to see his family, his grandmother Gaga greets us with a giant box of homemade oatcakes: savory, crumbly crackers made with oats, water, and melted fat, such as shortening, butter, or lard. Though oatcakes don’t look like much—they’re brown pucks of cooked oats—they’re hearty and satisfying, and extremely snackable.

These cracker-like savory cookies, or biscuits in British parlance, are made and sold throughout the UK, where they’re enjoyed on their own or with cheese. They can be square, rectangular, or round, and vary in thickness. Unfortunately for me and my husband, they’re extremely difficult to find in the United States. (I have only had luck at specialty stores and online.) I realized that if I wanted to have oatcakes whenever I wanted, I’d have to make them myself. 

Luckily, Gaga—the same genius behind my one-bowl shortbread recipe—happily shared her oatcake recipe with me. Making oatcakes is a relatively simple process that requires just stirring together oats, baking soda, salt, melted fat, and hot water, then rolling, cutting, and cooking them on a griddle or skillet. The kind of oats and the fat you use, as well as the cooking method, however, can drastically impact the biscuit’s texture. With some testing and tweaking to Gaga’s recipe, I’ve developed a  foolproof method for preparing crisp, buttery oatcakes that taste just like they were made by your very own Scottish grandmother.

How to Make the Very Best Scottish Oatcakes

Use quick-cooking oats. Traditionally, oatcakes are made with Scottish oatmeal, which are stoneground and finer than rolled oats and steel-cut oats. Scottish oats aren’t as readily available in American grocery stores, so I opted for quick-cooking oats. Like Scottish oats, they are finer in texture. Because quick-cooking oats are made to cook more quickly, they absorb liquid more readily than rolled oats or steel-cut oats when combined with hot water, making the dough more cohesive and easier to work with. If you do have Scottish-style oats on hand, you can definitely use those instead of quick-cooking oats, but steer clear of rolled oats or steel-cut oats, as using those will result in a dough that’s difficult (if not impossible!) to work with.

Reach for clarified butter or ghee. In my testing, lard, bacon fat, shortening, and vegetable oil produced the crispiest oatcakes—but the most delicious ones were made with butter. Unlike animal fat, shortening, and oil, butter is not 100% fat. While fat percentage varies among butters, American butter typically contains 80% fat, with the remaining amount consisting of water and milk proteins. That water steams as the biscuit bakes, resulting in a slightly softer oatcake. A happy compromise is using clarified butter or ghee: Both are nearly 100% butterfat and give the oatcakes a pleasant crispness while also providing a rich, buttery flavor. For ease, I recommend using store-bought clarified butter or ghee, but you can also make your own. 

Roll and chill the oatcakes—then bake them. Traditionally, cooks knead the oatcake dough together on a floured surface, roll it out, then cut it into rounds or triangles. They then transfer the cut oatcakes to a hot griddle to cook, a delicate operation that will likely leave your floor scattered with more uncooked oatcakes than you’d like. To make the oatcakes easier to cut and transfer, I roll the dough between two sheets of parchment, then freeze it until it’s just firm enough to cut. And instead of cooking the oatcakes on a griddle, I bake them on a sheet pan, which cooks them more evenly, requires zero flipping, and fills your home with the warm, buttery smell of savory Scottish biscuits baking.

Adjust oven racks to second-from-top and second-from bottom positions. Preheat to 350ºF (175ºC).

In a medium bowl, stir oats, salt, and baking soda to combine. Add melted clarified butter or ghee to oat mixture and, using a flexible spatula, toss to evenly coat oats with fat. Add hot water and stir until mixture begins to thicken, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Let sit until oat mixture has hydrated and is slightly sticky, about 5 minutes.

Using a flexible spatula, scrape oat mixture onto a 18- by 13-inch piece of parchment. Top with another 18- by 13-inch piece of parchment so oat mixture is sandwiched between and, using a rolling pin, roll oat mixture to 1/4-inch thickness. Grab both ends of the parchment, set onto a 18- by 13-inch rimmed baking sheet, and freeze until mixture is firm but pliable, about 30 minutes. Line two 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment; set aside.

Set a clean piece of parchment on your kitchen counter. Remove oatcake mixture from freezer. Peel off top layer of parchment, then invert oatcake mixture onto prepared sheet of parchment. Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut out 16 oatcakes. (Scraps can be rerolled, frozen, and punched out into additional oatcakes.) Transfer oatcakes to prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart, and bake until crispy and lightly browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely before serving or storing. 

Special Equipment

Whisk, flexible spatula, parchment paper, two or three 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheets (if you only have two you can reuse the one you freeze on for baking), 3-inch cookie cutter

Notes

Do not substitute Scottish or quick-cooking oats with rolled oats or steel-cut oats, as the latter two will produce a crumbly dough that won’t hold together.

Make-Ahead and Storage

The oatcake mixture can be rolled between parchment and frozen for up to 3 days. When ready to bake, let sit at room temperature until firm enough to punch, about 20 minutes.

After cooking and cooling, oatcakes can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.