Snowy weekends and Oatmeal Cookies

Is there anything more wonderful on a weekend than having a nice lie-in and then bake some cookies? Staying in the warmth and comfort of the house and enjoying the smell of butter and sugar and fresh fruit as they bake in the oven to become: the perfect oatmeal cookie. Or, more accurately, the perfect carrot-apple-raisin-almond-cinnamon-oatmeal cookie.

Finally, finally, winter has blessed us with a lovely thin coat of snow covering the roofs and trees outside my window. To top things, it's minus 10 degrees today. So why not enjoy a wonderfully warm and delicious cookie?

 I usually stick to the same basic recipe but keep adding ingredients, mixing things up and changing it around, To me, that's the real beauty ofbaking on a whim: the surprise. You never know how things are going to turn out, though mostly, if you trust your judgement, the result is lovely.

 This is the basic recipe: 

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup all purpose flour 

1/2 cup wholewheat flour 

1 1/2 cup oats 

1 cup almond sticks, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds (whatever you like, really) 

1 diced apple

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 cup dark raisins

 

 For these oatmeal cookies, I used coconut fat, softened in the microwave, then cream the eggs and the sugar with a fork before adding the flour. Then add the oats, the cubed apples, cinnamon, nuts and seeds and the baking soda.

 I used almond sticks and some grated carrot to give these cookies more texture. Sunflower seeds are also lovely for added crunchiness, though I wouldn't recommend adding pumpkin seeds. They give the cookies a slightly bitter taste. For this batch, I substituted half of the sugar with a mixture of honey and maple sirup, which gave the cookies a wonderfully earthy texture. If your dough is too dry, feel free to add some milk.

Personally, I like really big cookies with a slightly doughy texture, so I heaped 9 tablespoons of dough onto the cookie sheet, making sure the apple chunks and raisins were divided evenly between the cookies.
Put the cookies in the oven at 180°C for 14- 18 minutes or until they are lovely and golden. However, they should still be a little soft in the center, as they grow firmer while cooling.

 These cookies are worth making just for the smell, honestly ... and to think of all those healthy ingredients makes them a joy to eat, too!

Have a lovely weekend! I'm off to make some lovely vegetable curry now, before I head out for a snowy walk in the sunshine.
Love, x