Oat, Apple and Cinnamon Cookies

My beautiful friends. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love you. Even if I have never met you before, please know that this is true. I haven’t written here for a while, and I cannot believe how much has changed since then.

I’ve had a pretty crazy few months. Any of you who read my last post way back in November will know that I was feeling quite on edge and uncertain. In fact, I had just been dumped, but in possibly the loveliest way imaginable, leading to a little emotional craziness, or pardon the expression, a ‘mindfuck.’  And then a few weeks later, I was getting soaped up and whipped in a Turkish bath by a hot guy I didn’t know very well!!  Reflecting on the past year and my first post about trying to be less shy and more proactive, my ‘bath’ gained symbolic significance.

And then there was the accident…

It has been 3 weeks and I guess I’m halfway through the physical healing process. Time stopped and I have had to lie low on the adventures for a bit, but I have never felt more loved or more fearless in my life.  About a month or so ago I made these cookies as a thank you for two very special people who gave me some fantastic advice. As the recipient, it was not necessarily my right to chose the currency for services provided, but then, that isn’t how a gift economy works – or so I have been told. And now I am sharing them with you.

These cookies are a little bit like brandy-snaps – lace-like, crunchy caramel with little chunks of chewy apple. And as with my other cookies recipes you really need some silicone paper or some other sort of super non-stick tray. The recipe is from the Jamie Oliver magazine, and they suggest sandwiching two together with a maple buttercream. I think that it would be complete overkill and possibly also ruin the crunch of the cookies. Send me an email if you would like the quantities for the maple buttercream.

Makes approx 25-30, depending on how big you make them, I tend to make double batches

Ingredients

100g butter, at room temperature

100g sugar

50g golden syrup

50g self-raising flour

125g rolled oats/porridge

½ tsp ground cinnamon

50g dried apple, chopped (I used the Sainsburys semi-dried stuff, makes them more interesting)

1 egg yolk, beaten with 2 tbsp cold water

Preheat the oven to 180c (or 170 if using a fan oven) and line 2-3 baking trays – you will probably have to bake the cookies in batches.

Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Melt the butter with the sugar and syrup in a small pan over a low heat and add to the dry ingredients. Stir well and add the yolk mixture, stirring again. Leave to cool slightly.

Spoon teaspoons of the mixture on to the tray leaving plenty of room, and bake them for 10-12 minutes, until golden. Please be aware that like brandy snaps they will be soft when they come out of the oven, but will harden up as they cool down. It is best to get them on to a wire rack as soon as they are cool/hard enough to be peeled off the silicone paper/tray. And put the kettle on.