Chocolate Oaties

This week we did two lots of baking, on Monday we did the apricot & coconut cake as an actual cake rather than cake pops, which didn't last two days thanks to visitors on Tuesday morning (I've updated the blog post with a photo of the proper cake)! Therefore on Tuesday afternoon when my little one asked about baking we decided to make some cookies. I did think about trying my egg free cheesecake recipe, but I would like to try that unwatched/ unhelped first! As we had some left over oats from a past recipe so I decided to use them for our baking. My little one loved the melted chocolate stage, and everyone was a big fan of the final product.

Ingredients

• 125g soft brown sugar
• 125g butter
• 125g self raising flour
• 125g rolled oats
• 50g raisins (optional)
• 1 tbl spoon golden syrup
• 100g chocolate
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Methodology

Biscuits

• Preheat oven to 165C (fan assisted)
• Measure butter and syrup into a saucepan & stick on a low heat
• Add self raising flour, oats, raisins, bicarbonate of soda & sugar into a big bowl and give to little one to mix while you continue to melt the butter and syrup together.
• Once the wet ingredients are melted and mixed, add to the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon.
• Get out two baking trays (I used non stick)
• Roll into balls slightly smaller than golf balls (my mix made 14 cookies)
• Put on tray & lightly press down
• Cook for 15 mins, until golden brown
• Leave in tray for 3 mins to 'set'
• Put on cooling tray to cool.

Chocolate Topping

• Melt the chocolate on a low heat (I've got induction, a 1 or 2 works best, I also used the saucepan from melting the butter & syrup together as butter gives chocolate a nice sheen, this did not work too much but did save on washing up!)
• Once melted I let my toddler lick the spoon while I painted the biscuits
• Using a pastry brush paint half the cookies with chocolate. 
• Put back on the cooling tray. 

The final produce waiting to set

Update 01/07/2016: I've just done this again, added 40g chopped cashew nuts, 40g chopped dry dates and a mashed banana. This meant adding more flour and oats. Did this ad hoc during the mixing stage. 

Peanut butter cookies

Today we broke free of the pop cake maker to try out a new cookie recipe. This is one I have modified from a cookbook, replacing the egg with flaxseed. My little one wasn't too sure with the first cookie he tried, but soon decided they were "tasty" as he asked for more and more. This makes 16 cookies.

The final product, the ones bottom left are the ones out of the oven after 10mins

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tbsp flaxseed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 & 1/3 cups plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Method

• Preheat oven to 220C
• Cream together the peanut butter & butter until light and fluffy
• Beat in sugar
• In a small bowl mix the water and flaxseed toget to make a glutinous paste
• Beat in flaxseed mix & vanilla extract to mix - this makes the cookie batter
• Sift together the flour, baking powder & baking soda
• Slowly add the flour mix to the batter mix (mixing slowly) until just combined
• Shape into one inch balls two inches apart on a plain baking tray
  

  

  The balls ready to go in the oven

• Cook for 10 / 12 mins (until brown on edges).
• Put on cooling rack

Notes

I had to help the biscuit 'spread' with a fork in the oven as they cooked as they weren't doing it on their own, I did this after 5 mins. However I think they normally would spread on their own. I cooked these without the use of an electric mixer, allowing my son to do the mixing & adding of ingredients. This meant that the mixing was a bit hit and miss, and we had a small hiccup with the baking soda, he added too much (as in he tipped the entire packet in!) and it is possible I took too much out. He also tipped all the flour straight into the batter, which made it harder to combine and the mix ended up crumbly. I finished it off by almost kneading it together with my hands.
 I left my cookies in for 12 mins as thought they were too crumbly at 10 mins, I kept that batch out and just moved them a bit on the tray & then left them on the tray for a little bit before moving them, they held together ok after they cooled.