Oat Raisin Cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 80 g almonds
• 200 g jumbo rolled oats or gluten free oats
• 100 g unsalted butter, cut in pieces, or coconut oil
• 2 tsp yoghurt or whey or kefir or kombucha
• ¼ tsp soda bicarbonate (baking soda)
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 100 g coconut sugar or 110 g unrefined cane sugar
• 1 tsp real vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 150 g raisins or sultanas (golden raisins) or 120 g dark chocolate chips

Method

1. Grind almonds and 100 g oats 20 sec/speed 10.
2. Scrape down sides of TM bowl with spatula, add add butter, yoghurt, soda bicarbonate, sea salt, coconut sugar, vanilla and eggs, then mix 20 sec/speed 5.
3. Scrape down sides of TM bowl with spatula, add remaining 100 g oats and mix 15 sec/speed 4.
4. Add raisins (or chocolate chips) then stir into cookie dough with TM spatula until evenly mixed. Place heaped teaspoons 3-4 cm apart on a greased or lined (with greaseproof paper) baking tray, cover with cling film and set aside in a cool place or fridge to rest for 6 hours or overnight – see 1st tip.
5. Preheat oven to 170°C without fan/150°C with fan/325°F/gas 3½/Aga baking oven, then remove cling film and bake cookies 15-20 minutes until golden on top. Allow cookies to cool then remove from tray and serve, or store in a biscuit tin or cookie jar for up to 3 days or freeze up to 2 months.

Janie’s Tips

1. The mixture is very soft when first made and will firm up during resting.
2. Coconut sugar is slightly sweeter for its weight than unrefined cane sugar which is why the amounts in the ingredients list are different.
3. For peanut butter fans, add 80 g unsalted peanuts in step 1 or 80 g peanut butter in step 2 – this is a suggestion from my sister, who is a wonderful cook and baker. Her family loves these chocolate chip peanut butter cookies!
4. Baked cookies can be frozen on day of baking for up to 2 months.
5. To freeze unbaked cookie dough, in step 4 place heaped teaspoons 1 cm apart onto baking tray, then freeze on the tray; when frozen, transfer to a freezer container – I love to have these on hand so I can easily bake a few cookies fresh when a friend drops by or the children are hungry for a treat – to bake, defrost frozen cookie dough biscuits on a greased baking tray 15-20 minutes while your oven preheats, then bake as step 5.
6. For gluten free (GF) use gluten free oats – read ingredient labels to ensure all your ingredients are gluten free if gluten free is required.
7. For dairy free (DF), use coconut oil instead of butter, use dairy free yoghurt or kombucha (and use dairy free chocolate chips if making chocolate chip cookies) – read ingredient labels to ensure all your ingredients are dairy free if dairy free is required.
8. This recipe is vegetarian.
9. For more of Janie’s chocolate recipes, check out her recipe book I Love Chocolate I Love Thermomix