Cookies with Pistachio Nuts and M&Ms

Cookies with Pistachio Nuts and M&Ms
(adapted from a recipe by Vicarious Foodie)

1 1/4 cups plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt
1 1/4 cups porridge oats
1 cup chocolate m&ms
1 cup mini chocolate buttons
1/2 cup shelled pistachios, halved
170g butter, softened but still cool
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 medium egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350/180/Gas Mark 4

Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Mix in the egg and vanilla.

Sieve in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until well combined. I found I needed a couple of tablespoons of water at this point, probably because I used a medium egg. A large egg would be preferable. Use a rubber spatula to mix in the chocolate, oats and nuts. It really makes life easier!

Divide the mixture into balls the size of a golf ball. Place on 2 lined baking trays (I ended up doing them in 2 batches of 2 trays and put the rest in the fridge). Press the balls down with the palm of your hand.

Now this is where Vicarious Foodie came up trumps! You put one tray on the top shelf and one on the middle, then 20 minutes into cooking you swap the trays over, also turning them, so the back of the trays come to the front. Nice even cooking! My cookies were a little smaller, so I baked them for another 4 minutes, instead of 8. I let them cool a little before moving them to a wire rack.

Makes approx 24 cookies

You can see the original recipes for Wild Cherry M&M Cookies here.

also try - Scottish Flapjack Cookies

I tried out these cookies at the weekend with view to making another batch during the week. My friend Craig was having a Cake Bake for charity, so I said I would contribute. This first batch of cookies, I took into work, where they were quickly scoffed. Comments were positive and the general opinion was that they were good because they weren't too soft and chewy, hmmm, must be the Scottish palate! I think I might try them bigger next time, because, I quite like chewy cookies.

Anyway, back to my story. So, I thought I would make a couple of fruit loaves (my mum's recipe) and a new batch of cookies. Things didn't go to plan. I forgot just how long you have to leave the fruit loaf mixture to cool before you add the flour and eggs. The loaves came out of the oven at quarter to 10 at night, so no cookies for Craig!

Graham was most disgruntled that he wasn't getting a slice of fruit loaf to sample! Oh, well!

I put the cool loaves in clear bags and tied them closed with yellow satin ribbon. Pity I didn't take a photo, but I was rushing out to work at this point.

Here is an old photo from the same recipe.