Traditional Staffordshire Oatcakes - Easy Recipe

Name: Traditional Staffordshire Oatcakes - Easy Recipe
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 35 min
Yield: 8 large pancakes (oatcakes)
Cuisine: English, British
Ingredients: 225g (2 ¾ cups) fine oatmeal; 225g (1 ¾ cup + 1 tablespoons) strong wholewheat flour; 1 teaspoon salt; 10g (1 ½ teaspoons) dried yeast; 1 to 1½ pints (568 to 852 ml or 21⁄3 to 3½ cups) warm milk (dairy or vegan) with some water; 1 teaspoon sugar

in oatcakes, oatmeal, pancakes, savoury pancakes, staffordshire, staffordshire oatcakes - 43 comments

Staffordshire Oatcakes are savoury yeasted pancakes made from oatmeal. Easy to make & served with a sweet or savoury filling for breakfast or lunch.

Staffordshire oatcakes with a cheese filling.

Traditional Staffordshire Oatcakes - Easy Recipe

I have a pancake recipe with a difference today.

They are called Staffordshire oatcakes and they are the most delicious savoury pancakes (oatmeal pancakes).

These easy bakes are perfect for a hearty breakfast, brunch or instead of a sandwich at lunchtime.

They can be filled with a sweet or savoury filling.

I learned how to make these yeasted pancakes at the breadmaking course I was on recently with tutor Colin Lindsay at Bread in Fife (2024 update - Colin has now retired).

What are Staffordshire Oatcakes?

Staffordshire oatcakes are a type of yeasted savoury pancake (leavened pancakes) made with oatmeal and wholewheat flour.

They have a little sugar added but they are predominantly savoury.

Not to be confused with the Scottish oatcake which is a crisp biscuit made from oatmeal.

Yeast is added but the Staffordshire oatcake isn't made from a dough (like bread), but a yeasted smooth batter, similar to a pancake batter, but thicker.

The batter is set aside for an hour for the yeast to do its magic and then the oatcakes are cooked on a hot pan like a large frying pan or a griddle.

It's a good idea to pile them up on a heated plate and cover with a clean tea towel to keep the oatcakes warm, while you use the remaining batter.

They can be filled with a sweet or savoury filling and rolled before eating.

Derbyshire oatcakes are very similar but tend to be a bit bigger, thicker, and have a paler finish.

History of Staffordshire Oatcakes

The Romans brought oats to Britain and they soon became a popular crop across the British Isles as they were a hardy crop that was very versatile.

Each area created its own oat recipes from porridge and flapjacks in Scotland to a rough style of pancake in areas of England.

In the Middle Ages, these would be cooked on a griddle or bakestone (baxton) over an open fire and eaten by farmers and peasants as it was cheap food that would fill you up.

They became popular again as fast food for the pottery workers in Staffordshire during the Industrial Revolution.

Many men and women in the area would work in the Staffordshire potteries and a cottage industry emerged as older women would make oatcakes for their family and make extra to sell to workers on their way to potteries.

And so the 'hole in the wall' bakeries were born, as these enterprising women sold the oatcakes from a window in their house or sometimes knocked through a hole for this purpose.

These days, they can be bought from oatcake shops in the area and are sold commercially in supermarkets.

If you want to read the full history of the Staffordshire oatcake, there is a book called Staffordshire Oatcake: A History by Pamela Sambrook.

Reader's memories of Staffordshire oatcakes

Here are a few comments and memories of Staffordshire oatcakes from some of my readers.

Anon - I am from Staffordshire (Stoke on Trent) and these are our local delicacy....we only eat them with savoury fillings though and usually for breakfast / brunch. My favourite filling is bacon with melted cheese +/- mushrooms/tinned tomatoes......delicious but not too good for the waistline!!!

Jane S - I remember pulling up to some traffic lights in Leicester when a bloke got out of the car in front, came over to my car and leant in, shouting ‘gorr any oatcakes love’….my car had a potteries number plate….it did make me laugh

As a teacher in Stoke all the kids had oatcakes with ham and cheese for their packups.

Anon - I am also from Stoke-on-Trent, the home of the Staffordshire oatcake. Stoke towns were not mill towns but pottery towns and the workers buying oatcakes would overwhelmingly have worked in the pottery industry (the 'potbanks'). Oatcakes were originally sold via windows in homes - 'hole in the wall' outcake shops - but later became shops and today are mostly like take-away sandwich shops offering both plain oatcakes (and pikelets) by the half dozen and single 'filled oatcakes'. Although the last 'hole in the wall' oatcake shop closed most communities still have a local outcake shop and the habit of eating oatcakes is alive and well in the area. Some oatcake shops sell oatcakes and oatcake mixes by mail order too.

Mini S - I live in Cheshire near Staffordshire border they sell them in all the supermarkets around here but there are also shops that make and sell them locally and you can watch them being made and cooked.

Father Peter Weatherby - Another Stokie who loves his oatcakes! Oatcakes are very very popular in North Staffordshire and are also to be found in Cheshire (where I grew up) and in Derbyshire, where they are often called "Derbyshire Oatcakes" and are exactly the same. They are generally called "North Staffordshire Oatkcakes" when trying to describe them to those who are unfamiliar. I now live in South Staffordshire where they are not so well known, though they are available in the larger supermarkets. As someone who has lived in different parts of England, I continue to be astonished that they have not become more widely known and consumed.

Karen Abbott - Here in Macclesfield, Cheshire, we grew up on Dales's oatcakes, as their oatcake business stayed intact until about 10 years ago. They had a stall on the indoor market where we'd buy a dozen or two dozen a time (they keep well in the freezer), as they were such a local staple.

Nowadays, we rely either on Povey's oatcakes from Staffordshire, which are sold in the local Aldi. I did have a recipe purporting to be Dales's own, which worked well, but have since lost it.

Chris W - You can buy them in supermarkets here in Staffordshire, but if you live in Stoke on Trent you can buy them freshly made from oatcake shops

Anon - I disagree that Derbyshire oatcakes are identical to North Staffordshire's, I've found Derbyshire oatcakes to be thicker.

I grew up in Stoke (Tunstall) and just a few weeks ago found a North Staffordshire oatcake sold in a big supermarket in Bedfordshire, they're becoming national!

Tracy M - my mum left install in the early 60’s. It was like a cottage industry with some people selling them from their homes. My mum got them from a shop in Tunstall on a Sunday morning so possible The Hole in the Wall was after she left or not local to her.

Anon - I'm originally a Potteries lad and grew up on oatcakes. I now reside in Western Australia and luckily there's a kind gentleman in Perth who (with his brother) bought the original recipe from the last surviving oatcake shop in Staffordshire before it closed. They trade by the name of Hole in the Wall Oatcakes both in the UK and Australia, selling mixes and freshly made. We buy our mixes from him so that we can continue to get our "fix" 🙂.

Dawn W L - Cheese and mushrooms all the way for me. I love them and, now living in Staffordshire, have to take loads to family in Kent when we visit

Anon - The oatcake shop called the hole in the wall did close. When I was a kid there was a shop on every corner it seemed. Sadly lots of oatcakes are now commercially made and sold to supermarkets but they are a far cry from the beautiful delicate lacey oatcakes from proper oatcake shops. As the previous poster said there are still a number of traditional shops are still around (thankfully). I no longer live in Stoke but the first thing I do when I go home is buy oatcakes!🥰

Potters are very particular about their oatcakes and would probably never eat them with honey….too fancy that. They were meant to be wrapped round the likes of sausages and bacon and cheese….never folded

Tim R - Not from Staffordshire myself but remember doing a site visit to a reservoir about 20 years ago, it was in the middle of nowhere and lunch was a trailer in a layby which did basically oatcakes and tea. With the typical breakfast toppings. Veggie option was tomatoes, mushrooms, egg and cheese. Actually come to think of it perhaps the only English breakfast that includes cheese as standard. In the rest of thr West Midlands you can only really get them in Tesco or the occasional farmers market.

What equipment do you need to make oatcakes?

You don't need any fancy equipment to make these oatcakes.

All you need is:

Small bowl - for the yeast mixture
Large bowl (mixing bowl) - for the dry ingredients
A large spoon to scoop the mixture - or pour it from a jug
Clean tea towel - to cover the mixture while it sits
Frying pan - skillet, griddle or electric pancake maker to cook the pancakes
Silicone turner (fish slice) - to flip the pancakes (and not mark your pan)

Ingredients

Here are the simple ingredients you need to make yeasted oatcakes.

fine oatmeal
strong wholewheat flour - bread flour
salt
dry yeast
milk - dairy or vegan
water
sugar

Are porridge oats the same as oatmeal?

They are the same but different, let me explain.

Porridge oats are rolled oat flakes used to make porridge and in baking.

Oatmeal is stoneground oats (not to be confused with oat flour), which is a medium grade and finer consistency.

Avoid pinhead oatmeal when making pancakes, as it is little nibbly pieces of oat, which isn't suitable.

How to serve Staffordshire oatcakes

These savoury oatcakes can be served with a savoury or sweet filling for breakfast lunch or brunch.

Here are a few ideas:

Grated cheese - dairy or dairy-free depending on your diet
Cheese & tomato
Sausages and brown sauce - use your favourite sausages (we like Linda McCartney sausages)
Sausages & baked beans
Maple syrup
Golden syrup and banana
Chocolate spread

My reader's suggestions for fillings:

Cheese & baked beans
Melted cheese & tomato
Cheese & mushroom
Noochy beans - nooch is another word for nutritional yeast which gives a savoury, almost cheesy flavour
Baked beans with Mamite stirred through
Cheese & onion
Fried Mushrooms & tomato sauce
Tinned tomatoes, fried egg and cheddar

If you can them, you can add your own favourite toppings.

Reheating oatcakes

The best thing to do while making oatcakes is to pile them on a hot plate and cover them with a tea towel to keep them warm until you have used up all the batter, then serve them right away.

However, if you're making them ahead or have leftovers from the day before, you might want to reheat them.

You can reheat them on a plate in the microwave, in a warm pan or under a grill (broiler).

Keep leftover oatcakes in the fridge separated by layers of baking paper on a plate covered with cling film for a couple of days at the most I would say.

Freezing oatcakes

To freeze Staffordshire oatcakes, I would recommend rolling them and flash-freezing them on a baking tray.

Then move them to a freezer-friendly tub or bag (make sure it's labelled and dated).

Keep them for up to 1 month in the freezer.

To defrost them, leave them on a plate in the fridge overnight or defrost in the microwave.

Reheat in the microwave or a non-stick frying pan.

pin it for later

Staffordshire oatcakes, oatcakes, leavened pancakes, yeasted pancakes, pancakes with yeast, Derbyshire oatcakes

Breakfast, Lunch

English, British

Yield: 8 large pancakes (oatcakes)

Author: Jacqueline Meldrum