” I am a picky eater. By that I mean, I love to pick the raisins out of oatmeal raisin cookies, the chips out of chocolate chip cookies, the white side off of black and white cookies, and the vanilla center out of Oreos.”….Dylan Lauren.
I hate to admit it..but its very rarely that something relatively “healthy” comes out of my oven! My general philosophy is that if you are going to have a piece of cake , have the best piece of cake you possibly can . Desserts are meant to be decadent. If I want to eat light, I ll have a salad or cup of yoghurt instead ( or a smaller piece of that cake!).
My short stint at blogging has shown me that not everyone is as “caution to the wind” as me when it comes to baking! Which of course is probably the right attitude to have ( my creaking weighing scale agrees!) . There are people who have dietary restrictions due to lifestyle choices or religion or health . And people who bake for their families want to make wholesome choices for them rather than feed them slices and bites of calorie-ridden concoctions of butter, cream, sugar and eggs ! Which brings me to these cookies. A reader asked for some cookies made with oats , and I realized I always have a tin of oats in my pantry but I never use it.
These are Oat rounds , a recipe from Mary Berry, arguably the queen of British Baking. They aren’t super healthy but with oats , not too much butter and only semi sweet, definitely a lighter choice. They have only 4 ingredients (yes, 4!) and are easy to put together. The biscuits turn out crumbly and buttery, which the crunch of oats . The original recipe compares it to digestive biscuits.. but I find them so much better!
You ll need:
- 100 gram or little less than 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
- 50 gram or 1/4 cup sugar
- 50 gram or 1/3 cup flour
- 100 gram oats (I used saffola)
Makes: 20 round biscuits of 4-5 cm each
Time : 10 mins prep + 20 mins baking time per batch
Let’s get started:
Preheat your oven to 160 C . Grease your cookie tray or line with parchment paper
Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy ,around 4-5 minutes.
Add in the flour and oats and beat until dough forms.
Knead the dough a little (couple of minutes) to make it smooth and less sticky.
Roll it out ( dust the surface and rolling pin with all purpose flour) to about 1/2 cm thick. Cut out rounds( mine were 4 cm diameter).Place on prepared cookie pan with a couple of inches gap. Alternately, you could make balls of dough , place it on the cookie sheet and flatten with a glass. Reroll and cut as required.
Bake at 160 C for 20-22 C. They ll start turning pale gold around edges. The cookies will still be soft so didn’t fiddle with them. They ll turn crisp while cooling
Cool completely and store in an airtight container.
Also:
- These can be stored in an airtight container for unto a week.
- If you want added flavor, add 1/2 tsp vanilla
- Recipe can be halved for ten cookies and doubled for 40!
- I ve tried the recipe with equal amount of whole wheat flour, and while they taste good, i prefer the all purpose flour version better!
These are crisp , crumbly biscuits which are light and healthy . The predominant taste and texture is of course from the oats, so if you don’t like oats, this will probably not be your cup of tea. Otherwise , its great with a cup of tea ( I know! pathetic play on words!) . Or dipped in tea or coffee.. if thats how you like your biscuits :-).
I am definitely opening up to healthier and lighter bakes now.. provided of course that they taste good!
Hi, just came across your lovely blog! Planning to try out these cookies. I have one query – there is no baking powder or baking soda in these cookies. Neither have you mentioned self-raising flour in these recipes. So can i use regular maida for these and totally avoid the chemical rising agents ? Thanks!
Sorry for the late reply Tanuja.. these cookies have regular maida.. and no raising agents.. there s no mistake ☺. They are just meant to be made this way. They turn out quite crunchy ..