Swedish Oatmeal Hardtack - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 85th installment. The recipe is Swedish Oatmeal Hardtack.

(Running late on this blog - I'm getting the baking done with the BWD group schedule, but not the blogging :-)
This recipe made a nice 'oatey', slightly sweet cracker, and I loved the change of pace of making something with very few ingredients.  They include shortening, butter, sugar, oats, flour and buttermilk, with a little salt and baking soda.
The method was quite simple - cream the shortening, butter and sugar, and then add the mixed dry ingredients plus buttermilk.  You chill for a half hour, and then roll out the dough on a greased cookie sheet.  I got a thickness of between 1/8 and 1/4 inch.


"Pebble" the dough with a hardtack rolling pin (ok, didn't have one of those :-) or a fork, use a pastry wheel to cut the dough into rectangles, and then bake for a total of about 10 minutes.








You need to watch carefully to be sure they don't overbrown - even rolling helps it brown evening, but inevitably, the edges get a little browner, which I like.    I will definitely make these again - they were wonderful with cheese, soup, salad, or by themselves as a snack.  I might try rolling them slightly thinner, as the middle pieces were more flaky/chewy than crisp, and I liked the crunchy parts the best, both for flavor and texture.