Leading up to ANZAC Day I've been working on a super simple, nutritious oat biscuit recipe that can be an easy go-to, not just for the remembrance day, but year-round. These are full-textured, soft & crumbly in the middle and a little chewy, and good for the health-conscious, too! 

This recipe was developed especially for Plastic Free Pantry - a food delivery company on Waiheke Island that is forging a way for locals to receive goods without any plastic in the supply chain.

Plastic Free Pantry have wonderful wholegrain oats. Although it takes a bit more cooking / work to get these oats to comply in a biscuit recipe, it's worth using them as they are so nutritious and give a lovely full texture. After a couple of fails (overly greasy, overly soft & mushy...) this one was a winner with hubby who, being a bit fussy, is a good litmus test for me. ("There is just one issue. You didn't make enough of them...")

I did find the most simple answer to get the wholegrain oats to play ball - soak in hot water. Plus combine with buckwheat - see below.

Wholegrain oats are super-stars. Rich in fibre, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, protein and healthy fats, these really do differ from some highly processed "porridge" oats which can have much of the fibre removed and can be terrible for carbohydrate-sensitive souls (like me!)

This recipe is not 100% gluten free as the oats are not certified, however, unless you have a severe gluten intolerance, I'd give them a go, as all the ingredients are virtually gluten free. I've used buckwheat flour for its super nutritional profile, and as it's not technically a grain, it contains no gluten.

A new cool thing: for Waiheke people, the full recipe pack of dry ingredients can be purchased from Plastic Free Pantry. We hope to offer this for the rest of the country as soon as we can source durable, biodegradable bags for shipment.

One final note- these are not overly sweet. If you have a sweet tooth, increase the coconut sugar to 1/2 cup. But the man was happy with them as they were:)

Equipment:

I used a greased pizza stone for baking which was excellent and meant I didn't need to use any baking paper. Otherwise use an oven tray, greased or lined with baking paper.

Seive/ sifter (or buy already combined recipe pack from Plastic Free Pantry).

If you use a pizza stone, DO NOT PRE-HEAT the oven as you need to put it in to a fairly cold oven to prevent cracking. Otherwise, pre-heat to 180 degrees C.

Ingredients for approx 14 bikkies:

• 1 cup wholegrain oats soaked in 1 cup boiling water
• 50g butter or coconut oil
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 cup dessicated coconut
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Pour the boiling water over the oats and leave to soak for at least 10 minutes. Overnight is fine too.

2. In a large saucepan, melt the butter or coconut oil on low heat. While it melts, combine the other dry ingredients in a small bowl - sifting or sieving the flour & baking powder in together. (If you buy the recipe pack, don't worry about this step - you can just put the dry pack in from the bag). 

3. Add the dry ingredients & oats into the saucepan with the butter or coconut oil and combine well.

4. Roll into little 3cm diameter balls between your fingers and place onto your pizza stone or oven tray with 3cm spacing. If using a pizza stone, place it into a fairly COLD oven and then heat to 180 degrees C. Otherwise place try into your pre-heated oven. Bake for 15 - 20 mins until golden brown. (The pizza stone should catch up in cooking time unless your oven is really slow to heat up). 

5. Leave to cool completely before shifting them into a storage jar (if they last that long!).