granola, hazelnut and dark chocolate cookies

granola, hazelnut and dark chocolate cookies

I am not much of a granola for breakfast type of gal, perhaps I should be. Mornflake's pouch of oatbran granola is full of good things - as well as the oatflakes and toasted oatbran, it contains a mix of nuts and seeds, including almonds, pecan nuts and sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Since I don't much fancy nuts and seeds for breakfast, I thought the granola might make a rather good biscuit, and if I say so myself, I wasn't wrong. Big buttery crisp cookies full of crushed nuts, seeds and chocolate. Almost enough to make me feel healthy . . .

Makes about 24
Skill level: Easy

ingredients:
450g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt (or ½ teaspoon if using unsalted butter)
225g butter (at room temperature)
225g sugar (use ½ granulated or caster sugar, and ½ soft light brown sugar)
1 x large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g granola, roughly crushed
150g toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
125g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

directions:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4.
• Line 2 or 3 baking sheets with baking parchment.
• Sift the flour with the salt and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl and set aside.
• In a large bowl, using a hand-held electric mixer, beat the sugar, then add the sugars and beat until well mixed together.
• Whisk the egg with the vanilla extract and add to the butter mixture. Continue beating until well combined.
• Add the granola, chopped nuts and chocolate and stir well with a large spoon, until they are well combined and the mixture forms a dough.
• Form the cookies by scooping out the dough and forming a ball. (If you want to weigh each ball, they should weigh about 25 to 30 grammes each. This is about a generous tablespoon of dough). If you hands are slightly wet, it is easy to form the dough into balls.
• Space the dough balls out on the baking sheets. Flatten with the heel of your hand, the base of a jam jar or even the back of a fork. Chill the cookies for about 10 minutes before baking.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes and leave to cool on a wire baking rack. They will harden up as they cool.

tip:

• You can store any uncooked dough in the fridge for about a week or for several months in the freezer. It will need to be wrapped up in cling film though!