Recipe for Oat Cookies

These kind of cookies have so many names – crunchies, flapjacks, oat cookies, to name but a few. But whatever they’re called they are usually very easy to make, delicious, hearty and filling. Especially if you pack flavour into them with extra nuts, seeds or raisins. This specific recipe for oat cookies I got from my sister in South Africa who again got it from a friend, who probably also got it from someone…

And yes these are cookies, not biscuits. My idea of a biscuit is that they are usually harder and ‘snap’, while cookies are bigger (they don’t have to be), maybe thicker and have a softer chewier inside. But I know there are cultural differences between how to use these two words as well. Whatever you think they are – a cookie or a biscuit – using this recipe won’t change that or the taste.

I wrote another blog post, also using oats, for an Ukranian oat cookie recipe which is just as tasty.

Crunchie Cookies Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 3 cups oats
• 1.5 cups desiccated coconut
• 2 tsp syrup
• 1.75 cups sugar (I used brown sugar)
• 250 g butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (dissolved in ¼ cup warm water)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180˚C (350°F).
• Line a baking tin with baking parchment.
• Mix all the dry ingredients – flour, oats, desiccated coconut, sugar, salt – together.
• Melt the butter and syrup in a bowl over simmering water.
• Mix the dissolved bicarbonate of soda, vanilla and the melted butter mixture with the dry ingredients.
• Press into the lined baking tin.
• Bake for about 10 minutes, but this really depends on how thick you are making them. I baked mine for about 20 minutes.

This recipe makes many cookies, so why not freeze half of them? Especially with the upcoming festive days when you’ll need some extra goodies for guests.

Happy baking.