Oat Fruit & Nut Cookies

Hey folks!

Whenever I bake cookies I always seem to end up raving about how much I love baking cookies… and this post is no exception! These biscuits really are great, especially because they are soooooo flexible. You can add whatever you want, and you can make the dough in advance, and just bake ’em when you’re ready! When I made these, I prepared the dough on the weekend (which really doesn’t take very long) and kept it in the fridge so on a weeknight I could quickly whip up fresh cookies to take to work the next day. So easy!

I’ve made variations of these sorts of cookies many times. I really like the combination of oats, currants and pecans used here. I drizzled on some melted chocolate to jazz them up a bit. At christmas, I’ve made similar cookies with pistachios and cranberries – the red and green looks lovely and festive. I reckon you could add whatever combination of dried fruit and nuts that you liked. Maybe make them a bit bigger if you wanted? Dip half in chocolate, rather than drizzle? Go crazy!

To make these, you pretty much just combine all the ingredients in a food processor, or in a bowl using your hands. Roll them into logs, chill for a few hours, chop them up and bake.

This recipe was adapted from Honey & Co. The Baking Book.

Ingredients

• 350g plain flour
• 80g brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 50g oats (rolled or wholegrain are fine – depends on the texture you want!)
• 150g butter, slightly softened, cubed
• up to 1/2 cup milk
• 70g currants (or other dried fruit)
• 70g pecans, roughly chopped (or other nut)
• 50g dark chocolate (optional)

Instructions

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and oats in a large bowl or in a food processor. Mix to combine.
2. Add the butter and mix until it resembles breadcrumbs. You can either use a food processor or your fingers.
3. Add enough milk and mix to form a nice dough. Add fruit and nuts a mix to combine.
4. Divide the dough in two and roll into logs, about 20cm long (or shorter if you want larger cookies). Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least an hour, up to two days. You could probably freeze it too.
5. When you want to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 190ºC conventional bake or 170ºC fan bake. Line trays with baking paper. You may need to bake the cookies in a couple of batches.
6. Unwrap the logs of dough and cut into rounds about 1cm thick. Place on the baking tray with a bit of space between them. They won’t spread much.
7. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, then rotate the trays around and bake for a further 8 – 10 minutes, or until light golden.
8. When they have cooled enough to touch, transfer cookies to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
9. Optional: melt chocolate and drizzle over the cooled cookies.
10. Store in an airtight container for about a week.