Yesterday evening after dinner (bean burger, salad, tomatoes, sweet potato =yum) I tried out another recipe. This one was for oat and raisin cookies from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook . I love oatmeal raisin cookies but have never managed to find a recipe as good as the ones I have eaten on holiday- they always end up too crunchy like hob-nobs. A tip I have picked up (can’t remember where from) is to soak the raisins first, normally in water (but could be other liquid) to plump them up. This seems to do two things; they are lovely and moist, and they don’t burn in the oven.
So after soaking the raisins I mixed up the dough- I halved the recipe again (so in theory should have made 10 cookies) but in fact made 18 pretty generous sized cookies! I used half normal flour and half wholegrain spelt flour and I am loving this flavour in cookies- subtly nutty- it really went with the oats and cinnamon. I also used those vanilla oats which made them smell amazing!
They needed to cook for longer than stated, and once cooled I could not resist. The verdict? Pretty good. Scrumptious in fact, the texture was just right, nice and chewy, not crunchy, the raisins were sweet, you could taste the subtle cinnamon (cinnamon makes everything taste better) and the oats added a nice texture.
I will be making these again. Next time I might try an oatmeal raisin peanut combo, maybe use some PB instead of the butter (well I used olive spread but it’s the same).
Today I have been pottering around in the garden and I was most excited to see berries on my blackcurrant bush! They are little green berries, but there are loads of bunches! Compared to last year where I only had a handful (possibly 7, I can’t remember the exact number but it was hardly any) I will have a decent harvest!
I had to pot on yet more courgette plants (I have a recipe for courgette muffins which look like they would be amazing with soup for lunch)- once it all starts producing I am going to be busy in the kitchen.
I also planted some carrot seeds (some from the gardeners world dig in campaign and some that I had in the garage), some salad leaves and more sweetcorn seeds. I really need this weather to warm up so I can put everything outside, I am running out of space on all the windows!
I am off to London later to see Flight of the Conchords, which is going to be hilarious I am sure.