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Oatbran

I’m like your MUM, right? Telling you to eat fibre all the time. But I do it because I love you!!

Fibre is life-giving stuff. I’ve been saying this for an entire calendar year now and I was psyched last year to see in the paper that everyone agrees with me. And when I say everyone, I mean the WHO.

Here are two fun things to do with oatbran, which is like the highest of high fibre things you can eat legally in this country. If you’re unsure what oat bran is, it’s the discarded, fibrous husks of oats that they otherwise chuck out or feed to horses. Just the ticket!

1 Sprinkle it on your porridge. I don’t know about you but I make my porridge in the microwave. 1 min on hot, stir, then another minute. These days before putting it into cook I sprinkle over a tablespoon of oat bran that I bought in my local health food store, Earth, on Kentish Town road.

2 Add it to pancakes. Every Saturday morning I make my kids pancakes. I would cease this increasingly unwelcome weekend task but my children won’t let me. IT’S PANCAKE DAY!!! They scream every Saturday morning. I used to eat the pancakes with them and they were delicious – but I have decided now, nope, I am going to make my own high fibre pancake so that I can join in with them but also stay true to my evangelical high fibre mission: practise what you preach.

Esther’s High Fibre weekend pancakes – makes 2

3 ish heaped tablespoons of wholemeal self raising flour

1 heaped tablespoon of oatbran

Oatly oat milk or cow’s milk – both work. Probably about 150ml?

pinch of salt

1 egg

Butter for cooking

I’m sure by now you are a dab hand at cooking these sort of thick American-style pancakes, but if not don’t worry – they will take one or two to get the temperature of the pan and the timings right but once you’ve got it, you’ve got it for life.

Put the flour and the oat bran in a bowl then crack in an egg and mix with some of the dry ingredients until you have a blob of paste.

Add the liquid splash by splash until you have a very thick batter – you don’t want anything runny. At this stage if you like you can add sultanas or blueberries to the mixture. Both v nice.

Put butter in a pan – a large knob, probably about 20g, and let it sizzle and get hot. Blob the mixture into the pan until it’s a sort of pancake size. Cook this side until you see the mixture start to rise as the self-raising element of the mixture is activated by the heat and then flip over.

At this point I like to put a blob of butter on top of the pancake as it cooks so that it is melted and delicious by the time the underside is done

If you were to add chopped banana to the top of the pancake you would be in A* high fibre heaven.

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Comments

  1. Lizzie says

    January 22, 2019 at 10:21 am

    Thanks for this- I’m obsessed with getting everyone to eat lots of fibre. Have never managed good American-style pancakes though- mine are always heavy and a bit slimy rather than light and fluffy.

    Reply
    • esthermcoren says

      January 22, 2019 at 10:31 am

      your pan probably needs to be hotter x

      Reply
    • Jen says

      January 22, 2019 at 11:22 am

      I’m a huge fan of flaxseed too – Linwoods do a brilliant one with vitamin D which is great.

      Reply
    • Alice says

      January 22, 2019 at 8:16 pm

      Try this recipe. This is the one we use (and we are in the US so maybe that gives us some kind of ersatz authority.) You will have to do all the boring recipe translation I’m afraid. (Also, these are not the healthy, fibre-filled type.) https://www.marthastewart.com/318689/best-buttermilk-pancakes

      Reply
  2. Louise says

    January 22, 2019 at 10:57 am

    Mega yum 😋😋! I’m also doing this thing of chucking in a TBSP of ground flaxseed anytime anyone so much as looks as though they’re thinking about having porridge/making a smoothie 👍

    Reply
    • esthermcoren says

      January 22, 2019 at 11:10 am

      we are such massive mums

      Reply
      • Louise says

        January 22, 2019 at 1:47 pm

        Sooooo true 😭😂

        Reply
  3. Laura says

    January 22, 2019 at 11:23 am

    Perfect! I’ve an enormous tub of oatbran left over from when I had a flirtation with the Dukan diet so this is the ideal way to use it up!

    Reply
  4. Cindy says

    January 22, 2019 at 12:51 pm

    I started off making the pancake recipe from Nigella’s Feast years ago, now I get a tumbler and fill it with flour, then refill with milk to the same amount, and that seems to work well and I can now make them in my sleep and they turn out the same, which some mornings is really just as well. Her tip is buttering the pan, then tipping the melted butter into the batter (then perhaps picking a peck of pickled peppers). I make them for my kids a lot too with mashed banana and blueberries added in. Once on a family holiday they asked for these, their favourite breakfast, so I made them for everyone, including my dear dad, who, as it turns out, is an intractable lemon-and-sugar purist. His reaction to receiving such an affront to his expectations as a blueberry and banana pancake on this occasion was one of such disgust, it was as if I had fruited and flipped a turd and served it to him with a dollop of natural yoghurt. He bloody ate it though, and was too stubborn to say it was nice. Next time he’s getting some FIBRE in it.

    Reply
    • esthermcoren says

      January 22, 2019 at 2:26 pm

      This is so funny. the peck of pickled peppers and the fruited turd. you are too good for us Cindy

      Reply
  5. Janie says

    January 22, 2019 at 2:53 pm

    I know they are evil carby fruits but, my god, pears are full of indigestible fibre and get-things-moving. A bowl of oatbran with chopped-up pear on top would be epic.

    Reply
    • esthermcoren says

      January 22, 2019 at 5:42 pm

      Janie I like the way you think

      Reply
  6. thislifeishare says

    January 22, 2019 at 4:11 pm

    Seriously impressed by anyone who has the time, energy and goodwill to COOK in the morning! (Also I am never hungry at breakfast-why is that)? Could I maybe have them for lunch though- they sound delicious?

    Reply
  7. Catherine MT says

    January 22, 2019 at 4:36 pm

    James Martin’s american pancake recipe is foolproof, big n fluffy ever time, same as yours Esther but he adds a tbsp of baking powder. Leaving the mix to stand for ten minutes also helps them rise. The KEY is to teach your kids to make them, my 9yo has been doing it solo for a year or so now, which means happy, quiet kids and a lie in for us!! Chaos in the kitchen though…

    Reply
  8. Jules says

    January 22, 2019 at 5:14 pm

    I also like to put mashed up ripe bananas to the mix and a little of bi-carb as it fluffs up the pancake. I now want a pancake badly.

    Reply
  9. Elaine says

    January 22, 2019 at 9:51 pm

    I use my granny’s pancake recipe because I’m Scottish so our pancakes are fluffy anyway and she had American family, so double win. My (at the time not yet 2 year old) son got up at 5am one morning before Christmas, because they don’t bloody sleep due to excitement the night after you put the Christmas tree up. Or for most of December. Anyway. I made him fluffy breakfast pancakes at 6am and let me tell you, that doesn’t make me a good mum, that makes me an idiot.
    I feed them insanely healthy food most of the time but I’m reluctant to mess with my granny’s pancakes…. I’ll try this healthier version for me though. Spot on, Esther. Elaine x

    Reply
  10. Jen says

    January 23, 2019 at 9:40 am

    Thank you for bringing my attention to this, Esther. I bought some bran yesterday and this morning I’ve had a lovely banana chocolate smoothie with 15g of fibre in it!

    Reply
  11. Laura says

    January 23, 2019 at 9:48 am

    The best American pancake recipe we have found (and we are fanatically about pancakes – both crepes and American) is in Matilda Ramsay’s (yes her, daughter of Gordon) kids cook book. Kids cooks books are terrifically underrated and this is foolproof and easy and my girls can do it on their own which is a double-win

    Reply

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