Dark Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies

I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has read and commented on my last two posts. I know that the last post 'Saying a Final Goodbye to Yesterday' was a little (okay, a lot) darker than most of the other essays that appear on One Chic Chickpea but I had finally dealt with something that had lingered for too long and I wanted to put it somewhere public to remind me, lest should I ever forget that I have closed that chapter. 

So thank you, and I thought of you all when this greeted me this morning.

Now for the food portion of my post today.

There is something about an oat cookie that evokes images of country kitchens; a delft blue tablecloth on a round table bearing a plate piled high with cookies and a clear glass jug full of ice cold milk to accompany the freshly baked goods whose scent fragrances the air with its cinnamon vanilla perfume. This is the little fantasy that wove itself through my mind as I stirred this batch of lovelies up. For an hour while I mixed and they turned golden brown and chewy in the oven I was a million miles away from suburbia in my own little cottage in the middle of nowhere listening to the trees grow and watching the spelt wave in the breeze.

Dark Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies

Makes about 48 cookies (or 47 if you taste test before the oven!)

Ingredients:

200 grams of butter, softened

200 grams caster sugar

80 grams brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (you can use vanilla essence if you do not have paste)

200 grams wholemeal self raising flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

200 grams rolled oats

100 grams instant cooking oats

150 grams dark chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line three large cookie sheets with baking paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat butter, sugars, eggs, milk and vanilla bean paste until creamy and smooth.
3. Add flour, oats, cinnamon and chocolate chips. Stir the dry mix gently but thoroughly through the butter and egg mixture.
4. Drop rounded teaspoons of mixture onto the lined cookie sheets, leave about 5 centimetres (2 inches) between each round of mixture as the cookies will spread while baking. 
5. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until the cookies edges are lightly browned.
6. Allow to cool completely before packing into an air tight container.  

Chickpea Customisation: You can replace the dark chocolate chips with any other variety of chocolate you might prefer, or instead you could use dried fruit or nuts in place of the chocolate. 

So come into my (imaginary) country kitchen and pull up a chair. I'll pour us some milk and we can dunk our cookies and just drift away on the breeze for a little while...