Oatcakes (Aussie style)

My husband is half British, half Australian. As a snack he has recently been drawing on both his heritages and eating oatcakes spread with Vegemite. Oatcakes are delicious. Vegemite, which is apparently the result of dredging barrels of their yeast dregs after brewing beer, is a disgusting scourge on one’s palate but apparently if you grow up with it, you enjoy it. And in addition, it is stuffed full of various vitamins and it’s very salty, so if you need that sort of thing in your diet, I guess it suffices.

My husband has indoctrinated both our kids into enjoying Vegemite, and M has been known to eat it out of the jar with a spoon (and a side of oil in a syringe), which I find horrifying but since he can in fact use the vitamins and salt, I allow it.

So M had a nibble of one of my husband’s Vegemite-spread oatcakes recently and decided it was his new favorite snack and kept begging for an oatcake. They’re basically pure carbs so it was a nonstarter. In desperation I trawled the Internet for inspiration and finally found a workable starting point for a keto oatcake, and then I made a few changes to accommodate his calories and ratio. The result: something that looks and tastes oatcake-enough to make him happy, and perfect for a spread of butter and Vegemite. M loves them.

But to you, dear reader, a warning. Since I made these last Wednesday morning, M has eaten nothing else. You may notice the ingredients involve a lot of fiber. M’s digestive system has noticed, too. I would describe the 24 hour period from Friday to Saturday lunchtime to be a “cleanse”. Frankly, he kind of needed it, but do be warned.

Ingredients for 2.75:1 Oatcakes:

15g oat bran

43g macadamia nuts, finely ground

57 g Brazil nuts, finely ground

10 g coconut flour

28g flaxseed meal

50g egg, mixed well

35g salted European butter

2.5g baking soda

1g salt

Nut-Free Ingredients for 2.75:1 (added 9/8/2020):

note: these are a little chewier than the above version, in part because I use baking powder instead of baking soda to prevent the sunflower seed flour from turning them green)

12g oat bran

12g coconut flour

45g Sunflour sunflower seed flour

15g flaxseed meal

2g psyllium husk powder

2.5g baking powder

30g Nutiva MCT powder

1g salt

45g egg, mixed well

60g ghee

pinch of xanthan gum

Directions:

Preheat oven to 340 deg F.

In a small bowl, butter and whisk together with egg until mixed. Im a medium bowl combine all dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add egg and butter and combine until a coarse dough is formed.

Turn dough out onto parchment and roll out to 1/4” thickness between pieces of parchment. Cut out circle shapes with round cookie cutters and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 10-11 minutes until edges just begin to brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack. Store in a Ziploc bag.

Optional: serve spread with European butter and Vegemite. With Vegemite, less is more - you want more butter than Vegemite!