For a very simple biscuit, or cookie, you can’t get better than Orange & Lemon Oat Biscuits, or Cookies. These simple to make biscuits are great. The wonderful citrus flavour matches the crunch of the perfect biscuit. I based this recipe on one I saw on Moorlandseater. The recipe looked great and I could hardly wait to try it out.
However you can have a softer biscuit too. Simply adjust the baking time. Of course, I like biscuits in any form with a cup of tea. But these lovely citrus oat ones are top notch.
This is a very simple recipe. But it does use finely processed oats. I chopped rolled oats in a food processor to make a fine oatmeal, which made it very easy. How finely processed they are is a matter of preference. Particular favourites, of mine will always be those biscuits which are suited to dunking. These are just perfect for that.
The process is very simple for this recipe. Just process the oats finely. Then add all the other ingredients except the sultanas, mixed peel, butter and egg. Rub the butter into the dry mixture. Add in the mixed peel and sultanas. Add enough egg to bring the mixture to a dough. The dough needs to be chilled for about 45 minutes. Then it can be rolled out and cut into biscuits, ready for baking.
You can swap out the sultanas for other dried fruit or chopped nuts. Doing so make these biscuits perfect to satisfy any palate. Indeed you can also leave our the zest and use some spices instead.
As another variant you might include some finely ground desiccated coconut as well. In fact I think I will try that soon.
My Bake
I baked my biscuits for 17 minutes. They coloured well and felt slightly firm when they came out of the oven. Then, when cooled on a wire rack, they became nice and crunchy. In fact, for me, they had the perfect crunch. They were great for dunking in my tea too.
I found they were great with a nice cup of tea. Indeed I had to be very careful not to eat too many biscuits. If you are like me you may well quickly become addicted to these lovely biscuits. As I mentioned earlier, these biscuits are perfect for dunking in tea.
For lovers of crunchy biscuits you may enjoy Abbey Crunch.
Orange and Lemon Oat Biscuits
Course: Biscuits, CookiesCuisine: snackDifficulty: easy27
servings15
minutes17
minutesIngredients
120g (1 1/2 cups) rolled oats
80g (1/2 cup) wholemeal flour
40g(1/4 + 1 tsp, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) plain flour
120g(8 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
100g(1/2 cup) caster sugar
zest from 2 lemons
zest from 1 orange
20g(1 1/2 tbsp) chopped mixed peel, chopped very finely
30g(1/4 cup) sultanas, soaked for a few minutes and then drained and dried
2g(1/2 tsp) baking soda
1g(pinch) salt
1 medium egg(large in USA) beaten, you may not need all of the egg
Directions
- Place the oats into a processor and blitz them for few seconds, until they resemble a fine oatmeal.
- Place the oats into a large bowl and add the flours, baking soda, salt, lemon zest and orange zest.
- Stir round to combine them.
- Add the butter and rub into the mixture until it all resembles fine breadcrumbs(you can do this in processor too).
- Stir in the mixed peel and the sultanas.
- Add some of the egg and stir around until the mixture starts to clump a little. Add more egg if necessary.
- Use a hand to squeeze the mixture into a dough.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for about 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F.
- Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the dough, flouring the top too, until the thickness is about 3mm(1/8 inch).
- Use a 7cm(2 3/4 inch) cookie cutter to cut out the biscuit shapes and place them on a parchment lined baking tray, leaving a gap between each biscuit.
- Bake in the oven for between 15 to 18 minutes, until the biscuits have turned a nice golden brown colour. Then remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.