Michelle Darmody: How to bake oat cookies - a versatile treat

Pic: iStock

These buttery oat cookies are versatile. They can be used as a lunchbox treat or an afternoon pick-me-up.

They are also delicious crumbled over ice-cream and served with chocolate sauce.

As in most baking, a pinch of salt brings out the other flavours, and this is particularly important in the case of toasted or baked oats.

The addition of salt allows the nuttiness to shine. I use sea salt when baking and rub the crystals between my fingers to make it fine before adding it to the other ingredients. 

If you are using regular salt, which is often known as iodized salt, you can decrease the amount in a recipe by half as it has a stronger taste.

Oats are one of Ireland’s great ingredients. We grow them well and have used them in our diet for centuries.

We still have small independent millers and growers who provide us with porridge for breakfast, for baking, and more recently with oat milk.

Once oats were Ireland’s most widely grown crop. Today, they are third on the list.

As you may have noticed, this recipe is egg-free, so it is suitable for those who cannot have egg in their diet.

Baker's Tips 

Pause the mixer every now and then to scrape down the sides of the bowl and then continue beating. This ensures that you combine all of the butter and sugar first of all then the rest of the

If your cookies turn out too hard, overbaking is the most likely cause. Cookies continue to cook on the baking sheet even after they have been removed from the oven, so try taking them out when they are lightly golden. They will firm up as they cool, resulting in a chewier texture. Some other possible reasons for dry cookies are too much flour added or over-mixing the flour once it has been added. Mix the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar until they are just combined.

Using brown sugar will give you softer cookies as it has a higher moisture content than white sugar therefore it retains moisture better.

If your cookies break and crack it is most likely they were moved too quickly after coming out of the oven. Warm cookies are fragile and prefer to be left alone until they have cooled a little. Let them be until they are cool enough to handle and have firmed up then transfer them onto a wire rack.

After you roll your dough into a log you can keep it in a fridge for up to two weeks and cut it into slices when needed or you can freeze the slices and bake when cookies are in order. There is an extra benefit to baking straight from the fridge as it stops the cookies from spreading as they bake. Refrigeration chills the butter, so your cookies will keep their shape better as they bake.

3 Delicious Variations

Chocolate oat cookies

For the chocolate lovers there are two options, or a combination of both for those with a serious chocolate craving. You can replace the hazelnuts with chocolate chips and/or replace 20g of flour with 20g of cocoa powder

Fruity oat cookies

A variety of dried fruit can be added in place of the hazelnuts. Raisins, golden sultanas, dried apricots or chopped dates are all tasty editions. Glacé cherries can also be chopped and added instead of the nuts.

Cranberry and orange are a good combination. You can add the zest of two oranges when beating the butter and sugar then replace the hazelnuts with dried cranberries.

Spiced oat cookies

Crystalised ginger and a ¼ tsp of powdered ginger can be added to the cookie dough and then these are particularly nice dipped in dark chocolate.

Pecan nut and cinnamon by contrast give you a nice cosy wintery cookie for a cup of tea on a dark evening.

You can also divide the dough into 32 mini cookies. If you are doing this, I would reduce the baking time to about 10 minutes, keep an eye on them as all ovens vary slightly.

You can serve the cookies topped with a dollop of crème fraîche or Greek yogurt and sprinkled with fresh pomegranate seeds.