These are based on a ‘Special Oat Chewies’ recipe I picked up from somewhere many years ago. So when a friend asked for some chocolate chip cookies with oats this morning, this recipe came quickly to mind. Because of some new dietary restrictions amongst friends, I was able to modify the recipe accordingly below, and they’re delicious!
This makes a good 24-36 ‘biscuit’ sized treats (as I tend to cook them in baking trays of 12 at a time. Smaller is normally better)
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup rice bran oil (or vegetable oil)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup agave syrup (honey, or golden syrup)
- 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (soy, rice, etc. or regular dairy if you prefer)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups buckwheat flour (or wholemeal flour if you’re not worried about the Gluten Free aspect)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup sultans or raisins
- 1/3 cup hazelnuts
- 1 cup / 125g large chocolate chunks (such as 1/2 bar of Whitaker’s Dark Ghana, chopped roughly into half the regular sized chocolate squares)
Method
- Preheat your oven to around 180 degrees.
- Blend the oil, sugar, syrup/honey, milk and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Add the powdered ingredients slowly (mixing in well to the liquids as you go along).
- Finally add the raisins, whole hazelnuts, and chocolate chunks, and mix in well.
- Place large spoonfuls of the mixture onto baking parchment, around 12 cookies per sheet.
- They largely keep their shape, so will look pretty rugged even after baking.
- Bake them for around 11-14 minutes until just going golden on the peaks and base (rotating the baking trays as necessary).
- Remove from the oven, and leave to cool on the baking tray for a couple of minutes (to help keep their shape).
- Then remove carefully from the baking parchment, and allow to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes or so.
- Enjoy slowly!
Storage:
- You can store them in an airtight tub for up to a few days easily.
- I haven’t tested them beyond 4 days yet, because they always get eaten up by then!