Jam Tarts and Gingerbread Men: Oat and Apricot Cookies

These were supposed to be oat and raisin cookies, however, I ran out of raisins so we improvised. Later a quick internet search showed that apricot and oat is a recognized combination. So I used my oat and raisin recipe and swapped out the raisins for apricots. I like making cookies or any biscuit with oats in as they satisfy little (and grown up) tummies for longer. This is in American cup measures - great for cooking with kids as you don't need to be too precise. If you want to cut back on the refined sugar then swap the granulated sugar for honey. You can also reduce the salt for more child friendliness as well. If you're a cinnamon fan then it makes a great addition to these.

Ingredients Approx 12 cookies

1 1/4 cups rolled oats

3/4 cup self raising

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup Golden sugar sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup roughly chopped dried apricots (I used scissors and chop each one into 4 pieces)

3/4 cup chopped nuts

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C

Raw Cookies

Method

1. Combine the oats, baking powder and salt

2. In the mixer cream the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla essence

3. Mix in the oat mixture until just combined

4. Stir through the apricots and nuts with a wooden spoon

Baked Cookies

5. The mixture is quite loose, so don't be surprised. I sort of squeeze it together a bit by hand and roughly divide into 12 balls. I go with halving the mixture and then shaping it into a roll and then dividing that into 6. The shape is improved if you sightly press down on the top of each ball

6. Cook for 20 mins until the edges begin to brown, then leave to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack