Staffordshire Oatcakes

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

A quick and easy guide to see where someone really lived/grew up. Ask them if they like oatcakes. If they default to the scottish ones, you know they are not from the Potteries.... The only people I have found who love and actually miss staffordshire oatcakes all grew up in that area. Everyone else either does not see the point of them, tolerates them or can't stand them...

these are they... (and they are not the supermarket ones... )



Best served reheated on a gridle, with a filling. My favourite (until I could no longer have cheese) was melted cheese and onion. Various ways to serve, either roll them up like a pancake which is what we always did or go for them more traditional method of folding in half (and sometimes in half again) like a crepe.

They also make a surprisingly good substitute for chipattis!

Our favourite ones come from a small shop in the Westlands on Keele Road... (that's Newcastle-Under-Lyme for those not from the area )

 

[Arch]

My Mum (from Leicester), loves them, especially as a base for bacon and eggs. For a while she couldn't get them locally to her, but I could, so I would post some every so often. At least they are flat!

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I've tried them and I like. Just the supermarket ones though.

 

[Sandra Piddock]

There's somebody on one of the markets here in Spain who makes them freshly while you wait, and I love them. They bag them up for you to take home, and they'll keep a week in the fridge, or you can freeze them. I'd never even tried them before, but these clever people cook up a few and chop them up for samples.Now I buy them regularly.

My favourite way is to have them for breakfast. I spread it with grated tomato, top with grated cheese, roll up like a spring roll then give it about 1 minute in the microwave to melt the cheese and heat it through.

 

[Hacienda71]

Poveys with bacon, cheese and mushrooms. Mmmm
The last oatcake maker in Macclesfield shut it's doors about ten years ago. Don't think there are any producers left in Cheshire now.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Poveys with bacon, cheese and mushrooms. Mmmm
The last oatcake maker in Macclesfield shut it's doors about ten years ago. Don't think there are any producers left in Cheshire now.

nope - not Povey's. they are OK, significantly better than the rubber ones from the supermarkets, but compared to these ones, Povey's are adaquate. The ones all of our family prefer are from High Lane Oatcakes in Burslem. http://www.highlaneoatcakes.co.uk/ . We pick them up from the Premier Keele Road Store on Keele Road in Newcastle Under Lyme. Hoping that link works..

 

[ttcycle]

Have you got a recipe?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Have you got a recipe?

http://theoatcakeguide.co.uk/ click on the link recipe, though the ones I buy are not made with milk...

High Lane Oatcakes list their ingredients as water, flour, oatmeal (min 35%), yeast, salt and bicarb of soda only.

 

[ttcycle]

Sounds interesting, I may try it. Thanks!

 

[Ellyn]

I have a question about this oatcake recipe that I found: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/staffordshireoatcake_92371

Is the water added to the yeast and flour mix supposed to be lukewarm, and the yeast can still proof if left along for a whopping eight hours? Or is it meant to be warm water--or if you use warm water, can you leave it alone less than an hour?

(Maybe I should just look up other recipes for this same thing that are simpler...)

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Staffordshire Oatcakes are typically made up the night before and then used the following day, so the recipe sounds correct to me. I think they need to be left for that length of time because you are not looking at a dough mixture that is proving, you are looking at the yeast digesting the flour and altering the gluten content.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

However, having typed that it does seem that you can make them in an hour if you want to.
http://theoatcakeguide.co.uk
then go to the recipe down the left hand side... but this recipe includes milk... this is a Derbyshire/Staffordshire variation on the same thing - I can't remember which originally had milk and which did not but I prefer the ones that don't even before I developed the dairy allergy..

 

[lizzief79]

Funnily enough, I watched a series of Come Dine With Me I had recorded on the Freeview box last night and it was in Staffordshire. One of the contestants served a starter of oatcakes with three different fillings. I think they were cheese and bacon, goats cheese and caramelised onions and baked beans with something that I can't remember. I have never had oatcakes, but I quite fancied the goat's cheese one.

 

[Ella]

As a local, your thread made me smile as people get confused with oatcakes and what locals mean. They are a staple in most tea shops and cafes. The usual is cheese and tomato or a breakfast one with sauce on it, something I grew up with. Anyone who wants to know the difference between this an a pancake, it's more savory and thicker than a crepe so it can hold fillings with sauces well.

I like them with beans and scrambled eggs and I used to eat them with marmite in them as a child for a quick breakfast. They do go off very quickly though, even in the fridge, so if you make them, freeze what you don't use as they only last a few days. There is a lot of yeast in them so they can go off in hot weather even faster, even in the supermarket, they can start to go off if they are not stored correctly.