We had a power cut this morning, which was a pain as I wanted to test a couple of recipes. It went off in the small hours for an hour or so, making the phone by our bed bleep very loudly every now and then to tell us it was running out of charge. Then it came on for a couple of hours, then went off again. I looked up (on my phone which still had internet access) how widespread the cut was and it was quite local and they said they were intending for it to be back on at 11am. And almost to the dot, it was, so well done them. One of the worst things about power cuts, apart from not seeming to be able to do anything, is not knowing when they will end.
As I couldn’t do much of what needed to be done, I was mixing concrete for DP, good workout! But ooh, my back aches now. We were putting in the foundations of a path beside a bed and the side of the house. It will all be paved over nicely sometime soon. I am beating the garden into submission and it is starting to look really nice now.
So once the power was back on, I tested these. There is plenty of sugar available on Meal Plan 9, so I thought I would see what sweetened bannocks were like.
What you need to make bannock digestives
240g oats, value brand, 1kg/75p, 18p
60ml oil, Aldi 1 litre/89p, 5p
60g sugar, Aldi 1kg/49p, 3p
Total cost 26p, if you get 30 bannocks, just less than 1p each
How to make bannock digestives
Put the oats and sugar into a blender or liquidizer goblet and pulverise them for a while. Pulverising the oats like this into flour helps the bannocks to stick together.
Tip in the oil and blitz for a few seconds. Add enough water to form a dough, you won’t need very much. Tip out onto a lightly floured worktop and roll out to the thickness of a 2p coin.
Cut into whatever shapes you want, squares, fingers, rounds, whatever, and place on a very lightly oiled baking sheet.
Bake in a medium oven for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them, they just want to be a gentle golden colour.
Leave on the tin until they have cooled, they will be quite fragile until then, then when quite cold, store in an airtight tin. They will keep at least two weeks.
What changes can I make
On meal plan 9, use the bannocks whenever you want them. As an extra with any of the meals, as a fill up at supper or tea, or any other way you want them. The jam is there for the bannocks and breakfast pancakes, so you can use it with these if you want to.
I used a cookie cutter to cut out the rounds. Squishing the remaining mixture together and re-rolling until all the mixture was used. I got about 30 bannocks from this amount.
Feel free to use butter if you have any, you can taste it here, so it’s worth it.
They are pleasantly sweet and made a nice change. If you don’t want sweet bannocks on meal plan 9, just leave out the sugar, the difference in calories won’t make any difference, and there are other sweet things to enjoy this week.
See this post for lots and lots and lots of flavour variation ideas, both sweet and savoury, and for suggestions on how to make them if you have no way to blitz them.
That herby oil sounds lovely!
Yesterday I made the tuna and pasta salad,having all the basic ingredients (pasta,onions,carrots to hand) to hand,plus some herby oil at the bottom of a jar of feta cheese. It was very nice indeed,deliciously crunchy. I had decided to try to eat it in two portions,over two days,because I am trying to diet, but ended up eating it all in one day,for lunch,supper and late night snack.I did use one third as a kind of stir fry. This was very nice hot but not as filling,of course,as the vegetables cooked down. Initially I had considered doubling up the amount of tuna,but found the small amount OK.I will definitely make this again,perhaps with some other of the additions Lesley suggested.Now I am on a roll. I’ll look for something else to try with what is to hand.Thanks again,Lesley.
Hooray – they worked! I’m so glad you got something edible out of it
A few days ago,I decided, very impetuously,to have a go at making the bannocks,making a bit of a mess by having to improvise,twice adding too much water and having to amend quantities. I consoled myself that Lesley often recommends substitutions and adaptions! Eventually I decided to bake the wettish mix,using a lot of flour for dusting the board and rolling-pin. It worked and some bannock-like biscuits are safely in my tin,though they are not all as neat as Lesley’s They taste rather nice,with a banana for breakfast or plain with a cup of tea.(I added raisins).It will be fun to try some other individual recipes from the Menu Plans.
You’re right, I did miss it out, woops. Add it in at the beginning with the oats.
I’ve put it in now
Hi Lesley.
At what point should one add the sugar? I read and re – read it several times just to be sure but I think you missed it out!
Thanks