Donegal Oatcakes and Tomato-Rosemary Jam

I’ve been home most of this week with FOUR sick kids.  I’m only just getting used to having four children, let alone sick ones.   It’s been snowy and cold here, so if there is a time to be taking care of sick little ones and baking, that time is now.  

This whole cold, snowy weather, sick kids thing could really be a bummer, and while I hate that the kids are off their game, I’m feeling fortunate that it’s not this nasty flu everyone else is getting.  Also, since I’m on maternity leave, I can be here to take care of them.  And do what I would probably be doing anyway: Bake.

It’s funny how I think most people who know me would say that I’m an extrovert, outgoing, social and talkative (“excessive talking” was the comment I would get from every single teacher on my elementary school report cards).  I’m all of those things, but I’m also a homebody to the core. I can go days, weeks even, without leaving the house. I always have a list of projects I want to tackle and it’s so easy for me to just get lost in one or a few of them.  When I’m focused, I don’t notice the hours or days go by.  Paul tells me that he can identify the look in my face when I’m “in the zone” and he knows to just get out of the way. Haha.

My point is, that for me, being snowed in with sick littles isn’t so bad. It’s an opportunity for me to get things done around the house, including trying some recipes I’ve had on my list.  So, once again, I find myself cooking comfort food from the pantry.

I’ve been wanting to try this simple recipe for Donegal Oatcakes by Darina Allen for ages.  When I surveyed the contents of our fridge and saw tomato-rosemary jam, a by-product of Paul and I both buying grape tomatoes on the same day, I thought it would complement these oatcakes perfectly. Well, as it turns out, I was right. These were nutty and homey and another easy and delicious way to use my favorite Irish flour. They are also great with fruit jam and clotted cream, creme fraiche, or greek yogurt.  They can be taken in the direction of dessert with a generous swipe of nutella - sort of like an oaty, nutty, chocolate digestive. With just five ingredients, and a little time, they couldn't be easier to make.

Put the kettle on.

Donegal Oatcakes

• 1 cup stone-ground oatmeal
• 1 cup whole wheat flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter or lard, cubed and chilled, plus butter for serving (optional)
• 1⁄2 tsp. kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
• 1⁄2 cup boiling water

Tomato- RosemaryJam

• 2 cups grape tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ⅓ to ½ cup of sugar

For tomato jam:

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer until tomatoes cook down and the mixture reaches a thick, jammy consistency, about 1 hour.  Remove rosemary sprig, its ok to leave some whole leaves that have fallen off in the jam. Serve with oatcakes, brown bread, on a grilled cheese or even with chicken, fish or pork.  

For oatcakes:

Add oats, flour, butter and salt to food processor and pulse until butter is in pea-sized clumps.

Drizzle in boiling water until dough comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a ½” thick square.  Place a kitchen towel over the top and let sit to dry out for about an hour.

I rolled the dough out between the parchment I baked them on and a sheet of saran wrap. 

Preheat oven to 250F.  You can cut the cakes out with a biscuit cutter and gather and reuse the scraps or just cut them into squares as I did.

With this approach, they don't look identical (unless you rolled them out in a perfect rectangle) but I don't mind the "rustic" look.

Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and bake, flipping once, until golden and slightly crisp, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Serve warm or at room temperature with butter (or Irish cheddar) and tomato jam.

It's tough to tell from the photo but these did brown slighty on both sides.  They are crisp on the outside and a soft on the inside. 

These last about 1 week in an airtight container.

Hargadon’s Brown Bread

I made my own soda bread awhile back and it was brilliant. I was amazed that something so simple and easy to make could be so delicious. Then I made it with Odlum’s coarse wholemeal flour.  Predictably, it was even better.

I used a recipe that was given to my brother-in-law by a customer.  The recipe included her personal baking notes. I followed the recipe as altered by the notes.  Except that I didn’t bake it in a loaf pan because I was hungry and thought that it would be done quicker if I just shaped and baked it on a sheet pan. It still took 45 minutes but it was so worth it.  It reminded me why most soda bread in Ireland is made from this type of flour. More flavor, better texture.  Although not traditional, I sprinkled the loaf with poppy seeds before putting it in the oven.  

Once the bread was done, I immediately ate a huge hunk for lunch along with some Irish cheddar, a hard boiled egg and some tomato jam. It was the perfect simple lunch. I ate some later with peach-apricot jam from this little gem right across the way from Paddy's, creme fraiche and a cup of tea.  

Of course I had to look up Hargadon’s after tasting this bread credited to it.  According to www.goodfoodireland.ie

 Back in the mid 1800’s, when this pub first opened, Hargadons was a well-loved, local hostelry with a truly unique quality. Despite the prevalence of music bars and the myriad traditional musicians in the country, Hargadons remained a ‘quiet’ bar, devoid of music and dedicated to its position as a genuine sanctuary. This policy remained in situ until fairly recent times and despite it being relaxed in the last years, it remains free of television and devoted to conversation, story telling and of course good food. The pub has been at the heart of Sligo life for over one hundred and fifty years and despite being closed for some of them, has recently returned to its rightful place, close to the heart of Sligo folk and visitors. 

It sounds like the kind of place where this bread must have originated.

If you are baking this, you must make sure to preheat your oven before you start to get your ingredients together.  This bread comes together so fast that if you don’t, you will be waiting for your oven - not the worst problem to have.

Hargadon’s Brown Bread  

• 3 cups coarse wholemeal flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon salt
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 ¼ cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs

Preheat your oven to 375F.

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

Beat the eggs and the buttermilk together in a small bowl.

Create a well in your dry ingredients and pour the buttermilk-egg mixture in.

Using a wooden spoon, or your hands (I found it was easiest to use my hands and that no additional buttermilk was necessary) mix the dry and wet ingredients until no dry flour remains.

Shape the dough into a round on a greased sheet pan and cut an X across the top. The X should go about ⅔ of the way deep into the loaf.

Top with poppy seeds (optional).

Bake for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cut off a hot slice, slather with salted butter and enjoy.

My lunch date. She's getting so big and talkative. 

Roasted Tomato and Ricotta Tart with Odlum’s Coarse Whole Wheat Flour French Pastry Crust

One of the best things about cooking in the internet era is that almost always, someone, somewhere, has tried making what you have your tastebuds set on and written about it. So naturally, when I came up with the idea of using Odlum’s coarse wholemeal flour for something other than soda bread, I turned the the internet. I discovered that people add coarse wholemeal flour to yeasted loaves and quick breads other than soda bread, like muffins and scones, but I couldn’t find a recipe anywhere for a tart crust made from it.  

This surprised me because the coarse texture and nutty flavor, reminiscent of a digestive biscuit or graham cracker, seem like the perfect fit for either a sweet or savory tart base. Having had no luck finding the tart crust I was looking for, I started googling “whole wheat crust” and found multiple pie crust recipes as well as pizza crust recipes.  None of them really fit the bill.   

Eventually I came to the realization that I was just going to have to experiment a little and come up with my own. I decided to start with David Lebovitz’s French Pastry Crust recipe because it’s tough to mess up and, having made it before, it seemed like the type of crust I was looking for to complement the coarse wholemeal flour I wanted to use.

It’s an odd recipe.  First you put the butter, oil, salt, sugar and water in the oven until everything is melted together and the butter starts to brown. Then you take it out and stir in the flour until the dough comes together in a ball. When the dough is cool enough to handle, you press it into your tart dough, dock the bottom of the crust with a fork and blind bake it without even using pie weights. There’s so much to love about it.  Nothing needs to be cold, rested or rolled out and you don’t even need pie weights! It really is the best tart dough ever.

I adapted the recipe to use my beloved Odlum’s and filled the cooled crust with a roasted tomato and ricotta filling born out of my refusal to go to the grocery store for a few days too long.  Funny how back in late summer I was cursing my prolific cherry tomato plant and now I’m hoping that our next crop is just as large. Someone, please remind me not to be lazy about roasted and freezing those little babies. They come in handy in so many ways. I’ve been using them on grilled cheese sandwiches (genius, if I do say so myself), salads, pizzas, as part of a cheese plate, and now this.

I tested the crust recipe a couple of times.  Whole wheat flour doesn’t behave exactly like all-purpose flour so it took a couple of tries before I felt like I had the fat, water, flour ratio quite right. But as with the all-purpose flour version, the basic technique produced an impossible to mess up, delicious crust that was both easy to put together and held together well. The flavor and texture were just what I had in mind, a cross between a wheat thin and a digestive biscuit.

This tart, coupled with a salad (topped with more roasted tomatoes) makes a perfect, simple lunch. As for the crust, I’m already thinking about how I want to pair it with chocolate, a la chocolate digestives, or fruit. It would also be nice for a cheesecake.

Roasted Tomato and Ricotta Tart with Odlum’s Coarse Whole Wheat Flour French Pastry Crust

Makes 1 - 7 by 1-inch tart

 For the crust:

• 4 tablespoons (2 oz) butter
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons water
• 1 cup Odlum’s coarse wholemeal flour 

For the filling:

• 8oz full fat ricotta cheese
• ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon shredded parmesan cheese
• ¼ cup pistachio nuts
• 1 cup roasted cherry tomatoes (roasted red peppers would work well)
• ¼ cup sauteed minced green onions
• ¼ cup chopped parsley
• 1 egg
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400F.  

 Add salt, sugar, butter, oil and water to a heatproof bowl and place in the oven for about 20 minutes or until butter begins to brown around the edges.

 Remove from oven and mix in 1 cup of Odlum’s Coarse Wholemeal Flour with a spatula until no dry flour remains.

This is what it looks like when it's ready to press into the tart pan. 

 Once the dough is cool enough to handle, pat it into the tart pan.

Ready for the oven. 

Dock the bottom of the tart with the tines of a fork and place in the oven for 25 minutes or until the dough is brown all over.

Blind baked. I couldn't wait for this to cool. Probably not a good idea to start cooking projects when starving. 

While the tart crust is in the oven, combine all of the ingredients for the filling except 1 tablespoon of the parmesan cheese until they are well incorporated, it should be thick.  

When the crust is ready, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool completely before adding the filling.

Once the crust is cool, pour in the filling, sprinkle the reserved parmesan on top of the tart, and cook until it is set and only jiggles slightly in the middle when you move the tart pan from side to side, 20-30 minutes.

If you like, place under the broiler for about two minutes to brown the cheese on the top. Be careful you don’t burn the exposed top ring of  crust when you do this (I did - but it was easy enough to remove the burned parts afterwards (see below) whew!). You may want to cover yours with foil before you turn on the broiler to be safe.