Sweet Oat & Rye Cookies

After a weekend where some of us may have been a bit naughty and over indulged..... well I will admit to having one treat yesterday.....a gluten free muffin with butter icing to follow our delicious Silver Hill confit of duck.....would that be classified as 2 treats?.........it was an extended family get together after all so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!......today is the day we get 'back on the wagon'.....or.... 'normal meal service' resumes!

Hashtag 'monday motivation' will have been all over my Twitter feed from early morning making me even hungrier and a touch guilty as people post pictures of their healthy meal choices, but with the sun shining outside I'm feeling optimistic that I will 'maintain'........lightly cooked eggs for breakfast with a lemon green tea, a home made vegetable broth with hummus and crackers for lunch, a spinach and avocado salad with oven baked sweet potato 'chips' for supper, and a pat on the back for me at bedtime......planning is everything when it comes to sticking to your food guns!....plan what you will eat....keep to it and you can't go wrong.

It's much easier to control your own will power than it is others, and keeping two teenagers on the sort of straight and narrow when it comes to food choices is a challenge to say the least when one is obsessed with Oreo chocolate bars and the other with chewy mints. Luckily both take a packed lunch to their respective colleges, and to reduce the chances of them hitting the candy counter in the cafeteria at break time I slip a little something slightly sweet and rewarding into each box.......plus a few extra to feed their friends!

These oaty cookies are a healthier treat, albeit a sweet one, so they won't feel they are missing out on anything.....or so I tell myself.
Made with a high proportion of oats, unrefined cane sugar, honey, and the surprising addition of rye, they are chewy, nutty and deliciously moreish.
You can use golden syrup if you're not a honey fan, and some people aren't! You might like to dust these with castor sugar like you would shortbread, or you can zip them with, or dip them in chocolate.

You will need: makes approx 12 -20 cookies depending on the size you cut them

250 g rolled oats
75 g rye flour
50 g plain flour
250 g rolled oats
125 g light brown or raw cane sugar
200 g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons clear honey
1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract
pinch salt

How to:

• dice the butter and chill in the fridge
• heat the oven to 150 oC
• put the oats, salt, rye flour, plain flour and sugar in your mixing bowl
• add the chilled dice butter and using the spade attachment, rub in the butter on medium speed....you can of course rub in by hand but really it's such and awful lot of work.
• when the mixture begins to gain a sandy texture add the vanilla and the honey
• continue to mix gently until it comes together like a pastry dough
• scrape out the dough onto a lightly floured surface....you can use the rye or plain flour for this task
• roll out the dough to a thickness that suits you, some people like really deep oatcakes,  I like mine the thickness of a digestive biscuit
• cut out the cookies using a round plain or fluted cutter or you might like to cut shapes such as squares or triangles
• place the cookies on a non stick baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes before placing in the oven
• bake until they are a light golden brown
• remove from the oven....now is the time to dust them with sugar if you want.....otherwise, let them cool on the tray for a minute or so until they begin to firm up
• loosen the cookies slightly with a palette or other knife and leave them for another 10 minutes
• transfer to a wire cooling rack until fully cooled

As I said before you can dust these with sugar as soon as they come out of the oven or zip them with some melted chocolate or you can dip them.

Dip half the cookie in melted dark chocolate, shake off any excess, lay them flat on some greaseproof parchment and scatter some nibbed almonds or chopped pistachios on the chocolate side and leave them to set. Store your baked cookies in an airtight biscuit tin or suitable container....they freeze well too!