Clapbread

In an article for True Loaf magazine, Sophia Gallo wrote:

'In the rain-soaked uplands of Cumbria, Yorkshire and Scotland, the landscape shaped bread in different ways. Acidic soils made wheat a luxury, so oats more commonly sustained life. Because oats lack the gluten required for a well-risen loaf, domestic and professional bakers (also known as baxters in some places) tended to make flatbreads on hot griddles. One example was the now-almost-forgotten Cumbrian clapcake or clapbread. Fuel-efficient, quick-cooked and able to be dried and stored for months, it was a quintessential taste of the region’s identity.'

Ingredients

Makes one clapcake

75g fine oat flour, plus extra for dusting
60-65g of boiling water
Salt (a pinch)

Method

• Combine the ingredients and work into a stiff dough.
• Continue working the dough on a floured worktop until it becomes pliable.
• While the dough is still warm, clap it out using the palm of your hands to form a circle, about 18cm in diameter, then use a rolling pin to continue thinning until it is about double the diameter.
• Heat a griddle or frying pan. Transfer the dough onto the griddle and cook for 2-3 minutes, then turn the clapcake over and cook for a further 1-2 minutes.
• Transfer the clapcake onto a clean cloth and leave to cool for around 20 minutes.

Leave the clapcake to dry until crisp. Historically, this would have been done on a special rack called a havercake maiden but you can achieve the same result using a cool oven (e.g. after turning it off following cooking / baking in it.)

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Adapted by Sofia Gallo, from a Westmorland recipe given to food historian Ivan Day in the 1980s by Tucker Mallinson.

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Got a recipe to share?
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We’d need the full recipe (in grams) and method. We'll also need a photo of the finished bread - horizontal / landscape (rather than vertical or square), 3:2 aspect ratio, at least 1500 x 1000 pixels.