flipOat, Honey and Hazelnut Cakes
Oat, Honey and Hazelnut Cakes
Why this dish? The sheaf of wheat and spring water are among Dana's objects, goddess of harvests. At Imbolc, the festival of the return of light, grain and honey cakes were placed as a symbolic offering to the mother goddess to attract a bountiful harvest. Hazelnuts, fruit of the Celtic tree of wisdom, complete this gift.
Small golden cakes, crunchy with hazelnuts and bound with honey. Sweet and rustic, they were offered to the earth before being shared.
When the first light returns after the winter night, do not keep everything for your mouth, child. Take my oats, the honey from the hives, and the hazelnuts fallen from the wise tree, press them into small moons and cook them on the hot stone. Place the first on the threshold or at the foot of the spring — it is my portion — and eat the others thinking of the coming harvest. What you give to the earth, the earth returns a hundredfold.
- •Oat flour (or ground groats) — two handfuls (base)
- •Honey — a good spoonful (sweet binder)
- •Crushed hazelnuts — a handful (crunch)
- •Churned butter — a knob (richness)
- •Spring water — a splash (binding)
Oat, Honey and Hazelnut Cakes
Small golden cakes, crunchy with hazelnuts and bound with honey. Sweet and rustic, they were offered to the earth before being shared.
Why this dish? The sheaf of wheat and spring water are among Dana's objects, goddess of harvests. At Imbolc, the festival of the return of light, grain and honey cakes were placed as a symbolic offering to the mother goddess to attract a bountiful harvest. Hazelnuts, fruit of the Celtic tree of wisdom, complete this gift.
When the first light returns after the winter night, do not keep everything for your mouth, child. Take my oats, the honey from the hives, and the hazelnuts fallen from the wise tree, press them into small moons and cook them on the hot stone. Place the first on the threshold or at the foot of the spring — it is my portion — and eat the others thinking of the coming harvest. What you give to the earth, the earth returns a hundredfold.
Ingredients (period version)
- Oat flour (or ground groats) — two handfuls (base)
- Honey — a good spoonful (sweet binder)
- Crushed hazelnuts — a handful (crunch)
- Churned butter — a knob (richness)
- Spring water — a splash (binding)
Ingredients
- Blended oat flakes (or oat flour) — 200 g (base)
- Honey — 3 tbsp (sweet binder)
- Crushed hazelnuts — 60 g (crunch)
- Butter — 50 g (richness)
- Water — 2 to 3 tbsp (binding)
- Pinch of salt — 1 (balance)
Method
- Gently melt the butter with the honey.
- Mix the oats, crushed hazelnuts and salt in a bowl.
- Pour in the butter-honey mixture and enough water to form a cohesive dough.
- Shape small flat cakes by hand.
- Cook on a baking sheet (or dry pan) over medium heat for 4-5 minutes per side, until golden.
- Let cool: they firm up and become crunchy.
How it was made : Oats cooked into cakes on a flat stone or iron griddle is a very ancient practice of the Celtic isles, ancestor of the oatcake. Honey was the only sweetener available; the hazelnut, abundant and linked in myth to the Salmon of Knowledge, was a major foraged resource.
The contemporary twist : A few cakes drizzled with warm honey and a pinch of fleur de sel, stacked on a plate, become a refined table dessert.
Dana · Charactorium
