does anyone make oatcakes? I need advice!

[2jamsandwiches]

I've never made these as I reckon bought ones are just fine. However, I want to make some shaped savoury biscuits (think oatcake gingerbread men). Is this possible?
In particular
Do oatcakes spread (so my lovely shapes will be wrecked)?
Could I cut out fancy shapes (will the oaty bits mess everything up)?
And how fragile are they once they're cooked (ie will all the thin dangly bits just smash to smithereens as soon as I touch them)?

And if this is a bad idea, has anyone got a non-spreading savoury/cheese biscuit recipe that'll make shaped biscuits?!

haven't made them but there is a recipe in the Waitrose magazine I picked up today which suggests you can cut them into shapes

100g plain w/meal flour
100g medium oatmeal
1/2 tsp salt
65g butter

whizz dry ingredients and then add the cubed butter until it starts to come together then add 4-5 tsp water to make dough

roll out thinly and cut intno shapes. Bake at 170 C or about 30 mins.

Good luck!

ok, so i need to feed in an embarrassing bit of information here, in a fit of wild extravagance I bought these so I need to make something that will be tough enough to stand up, as well as take a shape.
So puff pastry idea won't work.
(hangs head in shame at insane christmas purchase...)

I think (though I haven't made them) that the 'dough' itself is quite fragile so they're a bit tricky. Delia does a nice cheesy biscuit recipe that you could do with cutters, and so does Nigella (the cheesy feet - Domestic Goddess I think, possibly)

or cheese scones rolled thin? we do those with a foot-shaped cutter and call them cheesey feet

but obviously Nigella got there first and trademarked the name...

Ahh. Right, no I'm thinking oatcakes not the way forward definitely. Wait and I'll get the delia recipe:

50g flour
1/4 tsp salt
pinch cayenne
pepper
50g grated cheddar
50g grated parmesan
50g butter at room temp
oven 190C

Sift flour, salt, cayenne and add pepper and cheeses. Add butter and rub in to crums then bring together (I think you could probably bung it all in a processor actually) - add a drop of milk if necessary.

Roll to 3mm, cut out and cook 10-12 mins on lightly greased tray. Cool on a wire rack.

Yum.

cheesy biscuits sound great! Will give them a go tomorrow (just had first go on sweet biscuit dough with crazy cutters - more practice needed, but they're quite engaging... in a mad sort of way)

I will here confess to receiving a tin of assorted snowflake cutters in the post this morning which I am itching to get started with. They come with little cut-out tools so you can do proper lacy snowflakes.

I am reluctant to let the DSs join in the fun, lest their efforts do not meet my artistic requirements .

oh, hurray, another guilty biscuit cutter secret! glad I'm not the only one who gets tempted...