You may have seen on Facebook that last night my Aga and I had a fight. As far as the Aga was concerned, last night was Burns night.
Once upon a time, that was my best sheet and favourite duvet cover. It was a rookie mistake, and one I hope not to repeat again. The Aga and I have been arguing about it all day – it has scorch marks on the hotplate lid that won’t come off.
So, in an effort to make friends with my Aga again, I decided to do some baking inspired by a less ominous sort of Burns night.
My starting point was a basic shortbread recipe. I’m sure most of you already know (and for those who don’t, I’m about to make your baking lives much easier) that the rule of thumb ratio, for both shortbread and crumble is 3-2-1 by weight. So three parts flour, to two parts butter, to one part sugar. Tweak it, add different things (pistachio and orange blossom water being my favourite), use other kinds of butter. Whatever. It is a forgiving and useful ratio.
So, having started thinking ‘hey, shortbread is Scottish enough’, I then decided that really, it ought to have oats too. And then I decided I was hungry and threw in everything else. The original ‘throw interesting things at oats and see what sticks’ inspiration was the wonderful Hannah Bond in her blog here: http://abondgirlsfooddiary.co.uk/2018/01/16/oatmeal-rum-raisin-cookies/. I’d credit her with the photo set up here too, except I really was eating biscuits and having a cup of tea!
Anyway, herewith is one (very simple) recipe for Burns night oat cookies, with some North American flavours lobbed at them.
Makes around 16 hearty biscuits
100g crunchy peanut butter
100g butter
50g light soft brown sugar
50g caster sugar
a large pinch of crunchy salt
100g plain flour
100g whole oats
100g oatmeal
100g chocolate chopped into chunks
50g hazelnuts roughly chopped
a little splash of milk to bring it all together, if needed (I used almond milk for a triple nut effect)
Cream together your butters and sugars. Throw in the flour and both kinds of oats and bring it together. At this stage it may look more like crumble than cookie dough, but that doesn’t matter.
Lob in the chocolate and nuts. Or go crazy and substitute in other flavours – I was thinking some stem ginger would be good. Or some freeze dried raspberries. Or lemon zest and juice instead of the chocolate and milk. Or orange zest as well as the chocolate. Or something outlandish. Probably not haggis. Although, after the success of haggis pasta, all those years ago, I’d never say never…
If the dough still looks like crumble, give it a splash of milk and bring it together with your hands. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and get shaping. The blobs won’t spread much in the oven, and if anything they will rise a little, so make them pretty flat and cookie shaped to start with. It is a sticky game, but you get to lick your fingers at the end of it.
Put the baking tray into the top oven of a sulking Aga, or a sensible oven at about 180°c for around 15 minutes, or until just golden. Cool on a wire rack, or scoff hot with a cup of tea.
