History Bakers: Quaker Oat Biscuits

January's History Bakers...slightly later than usual!

Last month's recipe comes from a souvenir recipe booklet produced for the Kingston Wesley Methodist Church Bazaar in 1962 (RefNo.C DCE/848/9). As it was January I was looking for something to bake that was a little healthier after the rich foods of Christmas and the New Year, and this recipe caught my eye, particularly as the ingredients are readily available and the biscuits are quick and easy to make.

C DCE/848/9

At the beginning of the recipe booklet is a page of useful information including oven settings and measures, and the electric oven temperatures are in Fahrenheit and so I needed to convert these to centigrade, and then reduce it accordingly for my fan assisted electric oven. The recipe instructions themselves are very brief and so there was some experimenting and keeping a close eye on the biscuits whilst they were cooking as no times are given. The recipe title indicates that Quaker Oats are to be used, but any porridge oats are suitable, and the same for the corn flakes, any brand can be used.

Recipe and ingredients

For electric ovens the mixture needs to be cooked initially at 180 degrees centigrade for four minutes, and then lower it to 170 degrees, and for fan assisted start at 170 degrees and lower it to 160 degrees. The mixture did not spread as much as I expected whilst it was cooking and a teaspoonful of the mixture gave very small biscuits. I found that a good tablespoonful or even more was better and produced a good crisp chewy biscuit. The baking time is 12 to 15 minutes, depending on the size, and the biscuits will be quite soft when they come out of the oven but will harden and crisp up as they cool on the cooling rack, so don’t be tempted to leave them in the oven to crisp.

The finished biscuits

Some comments from the staff after tasting them:
Claire      Crispie, oaty yummyness!
Elaine      Scrumptious, very tasty
Alex         Really nice!  Very moreish
Laura       Lovely, crispy and tasty!  Yum!
Verity        Just the right balance between crispy and chewy
Carol        Lovely and moist but crunchy in the right places
Sarah       Chewy, oaty and buttery.  Lovely!
Caoimhe   Delicious – crunchy and yummy
Elspeth      Extremely oaty, pleasant taste, and great crunch
Angela       Very crunchy, creamy and not too sweet
Neil          Oaty, light and crunchy.  Very nice!
Pete      Jolly good.

Christine, Conservator at Hull History Centre