I’ve been cooking variations of these oatie slices for years, mainly with plums or apples in the middle. The recipe is scribbled in a kitchen notebook and there are plenty of food smudges on it, a sign that this is a much-cooked favourite.
It’s very quick and easy: perfect for a chilly, rainy day when the warmth of the kitchen is appealling but you don’t want to labour over anything too taxing. And the oats, fruit and spelt flour manage to convince me that this is a comforting snack verging on the virtuously healthy. I turn a blind eye to the butter.
Despite the plum trees surprising me with a bountiful hidden harvest, the greengage tree is bare of fruit this year. But popping into the farmshop on the way back from school, I couldn’t resist buying some. I also picked up some great advice from the very knowledgeable lady grower about my new asparagus bed and admired her flowers. Very enjoyable shopping!
Greengages are only around for a few weeks and I love their golden-green juicy sweetness, so it seemed a good idea to buy plenty. Enough for us all to scoff fresh, and a few spare for a little Autumnal baking.
My oatie slices are almost a squidgier, fruitier version of flapjacks. I’ve been enjoying experimenting with the spelt flour from Gilchesters Organics and the organic wholemeal flour from Otterton Mill (reminds me of a lovely Devon holiday) so I used 1/2 of each in these but you can use any type of plain flour.
Greengage Oatie Slices
450g greengages (plums or apple and cinnamon work well in this too)
150g oats
275g plain wholemeal flour
225g unsalted butter
pinch of salt
110g light brown soft sugar
Heat oven 200C. Mix flour and oats with pinch of salt in a bowl. Melt butter and sugar over a low heat then mix with the flour/oats to make a sort of dough. Stone and slice greengages.
Press half of the dough into a rectangular baking tin and then scatter the greengages on top of it.
Top with the remaining oat/flour mixture and bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 minutes until nicely golden. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before marking into 15 squares, then leave to cool completely in the tin.
Ruby decided these were a great after-school snack. I recommend enjoying one with a coffee and they’re also great eaten while still warm as a pudding with vanilla ice cream or Greek yoghurt.
Would love to include this in the Four Seasons Food “Sliding into Autumn” jointly hosted by Anneli at Delicieux and Louisa at Eat Your Veg.
As it’s a very easy traybake teatime treat, would be great to be included in Karen from Lavender and Lovage’s September Teatime Treats challenge too (Flapjacks, Oats and Traybakes) which is co-hosted by Kate at What Kate Baked.
And lastly, would like to join in the One ingredient challenge hosted by Nazima at Franglais kitchen and Laura of How to Cook Good food
Alas greengages are not available to me – but you’ve got me thinking how great a ripe fig would be in this recipe….
I reckon figs would be great, fab idea. Funnily enough I’m trying to think of new ideas to use figs in, as we have lots ripening at the front of our house at the moment (yippee, first year of fig glut!)
These sound tasty and healthy too (if you don’t count the butter!) We need a few extra calories as the days get cooler anyway. 😉
That’s how I justify it too!
I adore greengages but our trees are both bare this year, even though the plum trees are laden. Any greengages that I get hold of this year will never make it as far as the oven but I guess this recipe would work just as well with plums or damsons.
I’ve made it lots with plums, but damsons are a great idea – I reckon their tart flavour would work really well with the rich, butteriness.
Thanks so much for linking up your fab recipe to the Four Seasons Food challenge! I LOVE the sound of your oaties, and although I don’t have any greengages this year one of my neighbours has an honesty box for damsons and plums which I can’t help continually stocking up on. I do love all the Autumn fruit, makes for wonderful, and healthier baking. About to blog a recipe for plum & almond cake myself too. Shall no doubt be trying your oaties too soon
I love honesty box fruit & veg stalls, I bet you have lots in your area. Plum and almond cake sounds good, still have a few plums to pick so will look out for it.
We’re still waiting for the greengages to ripen here… but when they do I’ll definitely be making these oatie slices – they look like they’d be perfect for school lunchboxes.
Do you have greengage trees in the garden? They would be good for lunchboxes, I’ve taken them on picnics. They’re a little crumbly to transport but still taste good.
How wonderfully simple and delicious! As you say, perfect for a day you fancy knocking something yummy up nice and quickly! I made flap jacks last weekend when I felt like that so I can relate to these oaties! I am bookmarking this one…it’s perfect for a rainy day with the kids. Thanks so much for entering Four Seasons Food
x
Thanks lots for visiting and yes, they;re definitely nice and easy to make with kids.
Ahh greengages. If only I can stop myself from eating them as they are…! they are wonderful, seasonal fruit and this is a great way to use up – I think I need to plant a greengage tree in the garden but sounds like they can be a little temperamental?
Have to admit that the large bowl I bought only yesterday is rapidly disappearing, can’t stop eating them as they are either. I think greengage trees are a little temperamental, ours is fairly newly planted (2 years ago) so I didn’t have great hopes this year but lots of people with trees near me are saying it isn’t a good year this year. I think they don’t reliably produce lots of fruit every year even when established – but they’re so delicious, I’d still be tempted to optimistically plant more!
I have a love affair with plums of all sorts, from mirabelles to greengages and this recipe has been bookmarked for me to make soon, I hope, subject to finding the little green plums! Karen
Thanks Karen, it’s a great time of year for home-grown and local fruit isn’t it. I love all the different types of plums too.
Oooh, they sound nice, Andrea! We don’t get greengages here, but good to know the recipe will work with plums! We have a baby asparagus bed too, and we count our harvest in spears rather than kilos, but it’s still nice to have half a dozen spears every few days to add to dinner!
Can’t wait until I’m enjoying just a few spears of asparagus Celia, will savour each one! Plums are definitely good in this.
I love the greengages I always find in France on holiday, the Reine Claude variety. I have spotted a greengage tree down at the allotment and I am keen to get on myself. I think they are delicious and the colour os so fantastic. This is a definite must try recipe for us as we all love greengages in our house!
How brilliant having a greengage tree at the allotment. We used to have an allotment and chose our plot as it had a tree, so was perfect for the hammock! Neither the tree or the hammock improved vegetable production!
I’ll be trying that out very soon but with damsons!
Damsons will be lovely. I was thinking about you recently as I realised we’re on our last bit of bacon! Wondering if your pig day is soon? We need to work out where our next pig is coming from! x
Yum, these sound great and something my kids would love too (both making and eating I suspect).
I was reading the comments above and I too think figs would be great. My neighbour had two old fig trees that were absolutely loaded with fruit every year and they didn’t like figs so I would end up with buckets and buckets of them. I was always looking for ways to use figs. My favourite were little figgy cakes (great at Christmas if they were ripe in time but good all year) and orange and fig jam.
How wonderful having a fig growing neighbour who doesn’t like figs! I could do with more ideas off you, we’re now getting a surprising number of lovely, ripe figs off our . We’ve eaten them lots as they are, made a tart, roasted some with honey and need new inspiration.
I made the oaties with damson yesterday as we had a garden club visiting, they went down very well! Will pronounced them ‘awesome’ and has requested a regular supply for lunch box treats!
The pigs will probably go in early November, I’ve put them to work clearing an area of the flower patch, so I’m hoping they’ll get that done before they go!
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I love the sweetness of ripe greengages and this traybake is such a lovely idea. A perfect afternoon treat!