These thin caramelized oat biscuits are often the first baking project Finnish kids learn - they’re so easy to make and the results are delicious. The two tricks are to leave enough room around the dollops of batter before baking, since they spread out a lot, and not overbaking them, since they burn very quickly.

These biscuits are called kauralastu or kaurapitsi in Finnish - “oat shavings” or “oat lace”. They are extremely sweet, a little too sweet to eat on their own for my taste, but more than perfect served with ice cream. We also used these to make ice cream sandwiches, with vanilla ice cream and blueberries - yum!

This batch makes a lot of biscuits, and we still have a jar full of them, but stored in an airtight container they keep for at least a few weeks.

Thin Oat Biscuits (makes 50-60):

• 3 and 1/2 dl rolled oats
• 1/2 dl whole wheat flour
• 2 and 1/2 dl sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 dl liquid margarine (or 100 g melted)
• 1/2 dl muscovado sugar
• 3/4 dl soy milk
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

We first mixed all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, then added in all the liquids, and finally just stirred with a fork until combined.

Then we covered a baking sheet with parchment paper and dropped teaspoonfuls of the batter on the sheet. The first sheet was a bit crowded, and we ended up with one very large biscuit! A teaspoonful of batter makes a biscuit that’s about the size of the palm of my hand, so these really do spread out quite a lot. We found out that making about 10 per baking sheet was good.

We baked our biscuits in 200 degrees Celsius for 5-7 minutes, until their edges had browned. At first, they needed 7 minutes, but once the oven had warmed more, 5 minutes was just enough - it’s important to keep an eye on them after 4 minutes, since the edges can turn black in less than a minute’s extra time.

After baking, we slided the parchment paper from the baking sheet to the kitchen counter, and let the biscuits cool down for a few seconds. Straight out of the oven, they don’t keep together well, but after only a few seconds they start to firm up. We wanted to make some curved biscuits too, so we lifted them with a thin spatula and carefully placed over a rolling pin. Now, if the biscuits had cooled down too long, they wouldn’t bend any more, so this is a little tricky. But flat biscuits are just as good!

Heikki also molded some of the biscuits in small bowls, and they make really pretty desserts with berries and ice cream!

These cookies were molded in small bowls right after baking.