I like cooking with oats, sometimes just porridge oats, sometimes big rolled oats, and I tend to make big oat cakes with lots of fruit and honey.
Two questions.
How can I get octaves to be moist inside, they can be a bit hard. I do add oil and sometimes butter, and use eggs.
Is it possible to make oats rise, like wheat, or to make a lighter, more aerated oat loaf. I like to use little to no wheat, and have added baking soda.
Many thanks
T
I'm afraid I have no idea what an octave is in this context. I'm going to guess you mean the oat cakes. Sugar is a good way to increase moistness in cakes; too much egg will tend to make it drier.
Oats do not contain the right proteins to form gluten, which is what makes wheat doughs capable of rising. If you use enough eggs and incorporate gas either through vigorous mixing or baking soda, you might be able to lighten the oats up a bit. I assume you're using an oat flour of some sort? If you're just using cracked or rolled oats, the texture is probably going to be too coarse to hold much air, unless you make it primarly whipped eggs and fold in the oats. (And in that case, what you've got is an oatmeal soufflé, which is probably not what you're looking for.)
There are some substitutes for gluten that are commonly used by those with gluten allergies. Xantham gum and guar gum are recommended pretty frequently, and you can probably find them in health food stores. You can also find gluten-free baking mixes that already contain them or another gluten substitute. I've never tried any of that stuff, so I can't really tell you how well it works.
Great info.
thanks
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One thing I forgot to mention is that baking soda doesn't produce any gas unless it is combined with an acidic ingredient, such as buttermilk, lemon juice, etc. If there's nothing particularly acidic in your recipe, use baking powder instead, which is a combination of baking soda with one or more acid-producing ingredients.
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