Oat Meal Gems
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine sour milk or buttermilk with oat meal.
Stir in salt and baking soda dissolved in a little cold water.
Bake
Pour the mixture into gem pans or a sheet pan.
Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Sour milk or buttermilk
- Acidifies the batter so the baking soda can react and lift it.
- Oat meal
- Forms the bulk of the batter and gives the gems their hearty, tender body.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic milk to produce gas that makes the gems rise and lighten.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda before stirring it in. Baking soda needs to be evenly dispersed in the batter to react with the acid in the milk. Dissolving it in a little water first helps it spread evenly, so the gems rise uniformly rather than in patches.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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