chocolate oaties
After several healthy, savoury recipes the time has come to blog some naughty sweet treats, namely these oatey, chocolatey biscuits which I made last weekend in a desperate attempt to keep depression at bay. And by the way, don’t worry! The depression was caused by an absolutely atrocious day, weather wise. Nothing else! I kid you not: it could have been November! I know…I know…people in Italy are complaining about the excessive heat (in the high 30s. EEK!). It would seem God can’t get the world temperature quite right. If we could get ten degrees more and Italy ten less that would solve the weather woes, would it not?. 😉 ha ha. Anyway, I was stuck in the house feeling cold and miserable. What better way to keep the blues at bay than bake? I am not one for cookies but I was due to have a meeting with a local group (tea/coffee and biscuits is de rigueur here in the UK whenever there is a meeting) so decided to give them a try. Well…people were very appreciative indeed. Mind you: if the choice is: bog standard bought biscuits (custard creams and the likes) or home made ones it ain’t hard to win the competition. Modesty apart I was pleased with my results: my oaties were nice and crunchy which is just what the doctor ordered in biscuitland, in my humble opinion. They come from the Good Housekeeping website. Apparently they are amongst the 15 best cookies. And I must say I agree. 
Ingredients
- 125 g (4oz) butter, plus extra to grease
- 125 g (4oz) self-raising flour
- 125 g (4oz) light brown soft sugar
- 125 g (4oz) porridge oats
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 125 g (4oz) milk or plain chocolate, melted
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4 and lightly grease two baking sheets. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, oats and soda. Set aside.
- In a small pan, melt butter and golden syrup. Add to the dry mixture and combine.
- Divide mixture into 16 and squeeze each portion into a ball. Don’t worry if it looks rather dry. Arrange on the baking sheets, spacing apart, and squash down a little. Bake for 15-18min until golden. Leave to cool for 3min on the trays, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (or microwave on full power in a glass bowl for 20sec bursts). Using a pastry brush, paint half of each biscuit, on the top and bottom, with chocolate. Alternatively, drizzle the chocolate liberally over biscuits. Transfer biscuits to a wire rack and allow to set before serving.
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