Tasting somewhat similar to granola bars, I decided to make these Oat & Raisin Cookies for two reasons. As I write this, we’re five days into Lent and for many people that means reducing or eliminating sweets treats from their diet for a number of weeks. Along with that, a member of my family is going through a health buzz at the minute, currently on day five of no sugar in the tea and no biscuits with the tea. With this in mind, I felt that it would be mean for me to be making my usual sweet treats.

I first started making this recipe when I was in secondary school. Over the years, I’ve experimented with swapping raisins for other dried fruits such as cranberries, adding desiccated coconut for an extra bit of bite or swapping the fruit for dark chocolate chips.

This recipe originated from a Rachel Allen recipe book but I’ve modified it slightly to increase the quantity of oats.

Hope you enjoy!

Amy x

Ingredients
75g margarine
75g caster sugar
75g soft light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp water
225g porridge oats
100g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
A handful of raisins

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Stir in the oats, flour, salt and raisins to form a thick and sticky dough.

Roll the dough into walnut-sized pieced, place onto a baking tray and flatten to a circular shape. A typical baking tray will hold 8 cookies. This recipe makes 16.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking tray for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies keep for a number of days when stored in an airtight container. I can’t be more specific as I haven’t seen them last beyond 4 or 5 days.