* Chocolate Chip Oaties

Two nights ago, we dropped our son off at his nan's and decided we'd try the *other Chinese takeaway* in the town - Wongs. It must have been there for at least 10 years or more - but it's still considered to be the *new place*.. compared to the *old place* - The Orient. Which has been there since time began. The way the tiles are falling off the walls, is proof of this.

Out of some misguided sense of loyalty (my dad knew the owner) we've continued to frequent The Orient... to sit for almost an hour waiting for either our food, or death - whichever arrived first. Only to get home with our supposed box of goodies to discover that A: We'd been given the wrong order or B: We had the correct order, but it was burned to a frazzle and a bit cardboardy.

The disappointment was never... disappointing.

Never again though.

The so called *new place* had our order ready and correct within 10 minutes. When we got home it was fresh, tasty and hot - and it was enough to feed the five thousand. We had to split it into two nights worth of food - which... long story longer... is why today's update is cookies.

I've not needed to cook a dinner for two days. Amazingly - I felt a very small sense of loss at this. Very small. Infinitesimal.

Thus - Cookies.

Oh yeah - and I turned the fridge into a rainbow again. Which was fun.

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Chocolate Chip Oaties Recipe

Makes about 30 cookies


Prep time - 10 minutes plus an hour for freezing

Cooking time - 15 minutes

You will need

Baking parchment

A baking sheet

A bowl and whisk/muscles and wooden spoon.

Ingredients

200g butter - softened

200g soft brown sugar (I use half light muscuvado and half ordinary)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g self raising flour

140g oats

Optional Extras

50g dark chocolate chips

50g dessicated coconut

50g dried cranberries

50g chopped nuts

50g anything you want to try to stick in a cookie

Method

Put the softened butter and all of the sugar into a bowl and whisk to combine. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then add the vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Stir in the flour and oats and whisk until everything is mixed together. The mixture should be quite stiff. Try not to start eating it with a spoon at this stage. I find this VERY difficult.

Decide what you want to add (if anything) to your mixture from the optional extras list, and stir it in.

NOTE: You can very easily divide the cookie mixture into two and add 25g of one choice to half and 25g of a different choice (or nothing at all) to the other half. Which is usually what I do.

Cut off an A4 sized sheet of baking parchment and spoon half of the cookie mixture along it's centre. Pull over one edge of the paper and roll up into a cylinder, and twist the ends to secure it. Roll it across your work surface as if it's a rolling pin, to smooth it out a bit. Don't worry about it being a perfect *round* - cooking it later on will give it a natural shape. Place it in the freezer - repeat with the other half of the mixture. It will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months if you just want to make the dough ahead.

Check it after about an hour, if it's frozen solid - it's ready to use.

Heat oven to 180c/160cfan/gas4/350f. Unwrap the dough and slice with a knife (I use a serated edge, as it cuts more easily through any fruit/nuts/choc chips), cut the cylinder into rounds of about 1/2 cm in thickness. Place on a baking sheet, spacing them apart as they do spread very slightly. Cook for 10 - 15 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool for at least a couple of minutes before transfering to a cooling rack.

Eat when you can't wait a second longer.