I want to bake.  I have a thousand recipes on my list to try but I’m aimless.  -- Is this sounding familiar? --  I look through my two notebooks of recipes I’ve printed out thinking “I have to bake this, NOW.”  That was a year ago.  Yes, I still want to bake that ... just not today NOW.  Another NOW.  -- You’re getting the drift now right? --  I grab three bread books at random and go sit in the corner.  I’m reading recipes in one and then another, back and forth ...

What grabbed me about this recipe?  Not the immediacy: it required a simple 5 minutes prep and then 3 days before it was to be put in the oven.  Maybe what attracted me was the fact that I love working healthy oatmeal into our diet and since I love buttermilk, I most always have it around.  Maybe it was because the recipe comes from the Orkney Islands and I’ve always wanted to visit there.  Why you ask?  No more idea than it’s just been a hair under my shirt for over 30 years. 

This recipe produces a very unique formed moist scone filled with oatmeal.  Totally simple to put together.

Sour Skon

Adapted from Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads

1 cup oatmeal (not instant)  130 g

1 1/4 cup buttermilk  342 ml

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon crushed caraway seeds

1 cup white whole wheat flour

Mix oatmeal and buttermilk together.  Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 3 days, stirring once a day.  I got sidetracked and didn’t bake these until day 4.

Baking Day:

Stir oatmeal buttermilk mix.  Stir together dry ingredients and pour the oatmeal buttermilk into the dry ingredients.  Mix just until the flour is absorbed.  Dough will be very firm and thick. 

Pat the dough into a round disk about 8 inches and less than an inch thick.  I used a round cake pan, you could do it on a cookie sheet.  Score the dough into 8 wedge-shaped pie pieces.

Bake at 425° for about 30 minutes.  Cake tester (tooth pick) should come out clean & dry when done.  Mine baked 30 minutes.  Break along the scored lines to serve.

Directions are also given for mixing in a food processor and baking immediately AND for cooking on top of the stove on a griddle but the above is what worked for me.

There is nothing mind blowing about this recipe ... well, wait ... the most mind blowing thing to me about this was the aroma of oatmeal and buttermilk baking.  I’ve never been more impressed by a simple yet glorious heady aroma.  Gorgeous. 

The scone is delightfully moist and the caraway was fabulous flavor for me.  It reminds a little of Irish soda bread but it’s not. 

Are you a person who thinks: I should be eating oatmeal OR are you the person who thinks:  it’s healthy, I have to eat oatmeal OR are you the person who thinks: I love oatmeal?   No matter what you think of oatmeal, I think you should put your creative talents to this recipe if you ever thought you “should” or “must” or “want” to eat oatmeal.  There are a few SUPER foods on this earth that have the distinct glory of being bland. 

Some might look at these bland foods - tofu, flour...oatmeal - and think “boring”.  I like to think of these bland foods as SUPER foods because I can choose what flavor and what character they take on.

I enjoyed this for breakfast several mornings ... with butter ... with blue brie cheese ... and for lunch with some lovely Cumin Black Beans.

My next batch of oatmeal buttermilk is mixed in the fridge.  I’m going to try adding some walnuts and cardamon to it replacing the caraway.  And then I’m going to try changing it all around and omit the baking soda and make it with sour dough starter but then maybe somebody will beat me to that one.

What will you do with it?