I was given the idea of adding chocolate and blackberries to my oat cookies by a friend. So I set about developing them. I have eaten a few of these oat cookies recently to get the flavour and consistency how I like them, so I do hope you like them too!

This recipe will make 12 -14 cookies depending on the size cookie you like!

You will need:

• 130g Butter
• 130g Soft Brown Sugar
• 100g Golden Syrup
• 190g Self Raising Flour
• 200g Rolled Oats
• 60g Dark Chocolate (I used 70% cocoa)
• 80g Frozen Blackberries.

Method:

• Grease two baking sheets and preheat the oven to 170degrees.
• In a medium size pan melt together the butter, sugar and golden syrup over a low – medium heat and stir together well. You don’t want to overheat this as you will need to handle the cookie mixture and you don’t want the blackberries to defrost to quickly or they will go very mushy.
• Turn the heat off.
• Add the flour, giving it a good stir.
• Add the rolled oats and chocolate, the chocolate will melt into the mixture as you mix it in. Make sure you get right round the bottom edges of the pan.
• Just before the oats are completely mixed in add the frozen blackberries straight from the freezer. You may want to get your hands in to finish mixing and to distribute the blackberries throughout the cookie dough.
• With your hands roll the mixture into about 12 golf ball sized balls and arrange on your prepared baking sheets.
• Flatten each one slightly with your finger tips.
• Bake for about 10 – 12mins or until slightly golden. The longer you cook them the harder the cookies will become.
• Remove from the oven allow to cool on the tray for 5mins then remove from the tray with a spatula onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Tip for the blackberries:

I used blackberries that I have foraged from the hedgerows, these tend to be smaller than those purchased in the supermarket and packed with flavour.

Because they are smaller you don’t need so many. However if you are using the larger variety of blackberries you will need to use at about 100g to be able to distribute evenly throughout the cookies.

I have found that adding the blackberries straight from the freezer (so they are still frozen when added) helps to stop them from going to squishy when forming the cookies. I like whole berries in my cookies rather than a squashed mess.