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Scotch Wafers
1 cup fine oatmeal 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup Rolled Oats 1/8 teaspoon soda 2 cups flour 1/4 cup butter or lard 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup hot water Mix first six ingredients. Melt shortening in water and add to first mixture. Toss on a floured board, pat, and roll as thinly as possible. Shape with a cutter, or with a sharp knife cut in strips. Bake on a buttered sheet in a slow oven. These are well adapted for children's luncheons, and are much enjoyed by the convalescent, taken with a glass of milk.
A plain oatcake-style wafer, closer to a cracker than a cookie. The whole success of it rests on rolling the dough thin enough.
- Oven"A slow oven" in books of this period is generally taken to mean somewhere around 300-325F. These are meant to dry out and crisp rather than brown; start checking at about 20 minutes, and they firm further as they cool.
- Roll it very thinThis is the hinge. Anything thicker than about 1/8 inch bakes to a hard biscuit rather than a wafer. Roll between sheets of parchment if the dough cracks, and re-roll scraps once only.
- Fine oatmealThis is milled oatmeal rather than rolled oats: the fine grade of Scottish oatmeal (finer than medium; pinhead is the coarsest grade). Grinding rolled oats briefly in a food processor is a workable substitute.
- Soda1/8 teaspoon of baking soda in this much flour is not a leavener; with no acid present it simply helps the wafers spread and crisp slightly. Do not increase it or they will taste soapy.
- ShorteningA quarter cup of butter or lard is 4 tablespoons. Butter gives better flavour, lard a shorter, sandier bite.
- Hot waterThe water must be hot enough to melt the fat and should be added while still warm, so the oatmeal begins to soften. Let the dough rest 10 minutes before rolling and it will handle far better.
- Baking sheet"Buttered sheet" can be parchment; these have enough fat not to stick. Prick each wafer once or twice with a fork to keep them flat.
- YieldA large batch; the exact number depends entirely on how thin they are rolled and the size of cutter. They keep about a week in a tin and can be re-crisped for a few minutes in a low oven.