Oatylicious lunchtime snacks.

I love baking with porridge oats, mainly because I love the toasty nutty flavor of anything with oats in but also because no matter what you make with them they always make the treat seem like it's a little healthy and good for you, even if said treat is actually packed full of sugar and butter. 

I'd been craving oatmeal and raisin cookies for a while and I also wanted to make some handy treats that I could easy wrap up each day and take to work for lunches. So, on Sunday I stocked up on oatmeal, dries fruit nuts and seeds and got baking.
First I made the oatmeal and raisin cookies I'd been craving and well they didn't make it past Monday until they had all been eaten so It's a good job I also made a ton of Muesli bars. Here they both are:

 

And here's how they're made: First the cookies as they are one of my all time favourites:
recipe via Hummingbird bakery. 

Makes 20

270g Unsalted butter
160g Caster sugar
160g Soft dark brown sugar
2 eggs
few drops of vanilla extract
380g Plain flour
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
110g Rolled oats
220g Raisins

Preheat the oven to 170deg C.
Put the butter and sugars in a bowl and whisk together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing well. Then whisk in the vanilla extract.

Sift together the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Add the oats and mix well. Add to the butter mixture and beat until well mixed. Stir in the raisins with a wooden spoon until evenly dispersed.

Arrange equal amounts of cookie dough on to some prepared baking trays making sure the cookies have enough room to spread while baking. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 12 minutes or until golden brown. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

And that's it for the cookies, now for the muesli bars:

These can be adapted to include any of your favourite dried fruit, nuts or seeds e.g, raisins, sultanas, apricot, sunflower seeds, cranberry, mango.... the mix of flavours and ingredients you can experiment with is vast and that's what makes these great, they never get boring.

makes about 15-20

I used:
320g Unsalted butter
240ml Golden syrup (although I'd definitely use less syrup next time as they were a little sticky - probably about 200ml)
250g Soft light brown sugar
270g Rolled oats
150g Desiccated coconut
125g Dried cranberries
125g Raisins
140g Cornflakes
100g Mixed seeds
good handful of cashews, chopped.

As I said feel free to mix the ingredients around to add more of your favorite.
Put the butter, golden syrup and sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat until melted and smooth. 
Put the oats, cereal and all your dried fruit/nuts/seeds into a large bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until everything is mixed. Pour in the butter mixture and mix until everything is combined and the dry ingredients are coated and evenly dispersed.

Press the mixture into a prepared baking tray and use a tablespoon to flatten it. Then cover this with a sheet of greaseproof paper and another baking tray covered in jam jars to compress the mixture. Leave this in the fridge overnight to cool and set.

And that's it, 2 recipes using porridge oats that aren't as healthy as I like to pretend they are.

Bye for now

Cupcake Kris xxx