Chunky Christmas Cookies

I recently bought some delicious looking Christmas cookies but was rather disappointed with the flavour. I like a strong winter spice and depth of flavour at Christmas, so I decided to try and come up with a recipe of my own. This is what I came up with…

Makes 15

Ingredients

185g                softened unsalted butter, cut into cubes

85g                  dark brown muscavado sugar

180g                plain flour

40g                  porridge oats

1 tbsp              cocoa powder

1 tbsp              black treacle

1                      medium egg

1 tsp                bicarbonate of soda

1 ½ tsp            mixed spice

100g                mixed fruit

Method

1.     Pre-heat the oven to 180/160 fan/ Gas Mark 4 and line two baking trays with baking parchment

2.     Beat the butter and sugar together with a hand mixer until the mix is light and creamy

3.     Add the egg and back treacle and continue to beat until everything is combined

4.     Sift over the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and spices and mix in with the oats and dried fruit

5.     Use a tablespoon of the mix to form a ball and put on the baking tray. I use an ice-cream scoop as this gives an easy and consistent shape, less messy too! Flatten the top of the ball a little

6.     Bake in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes until the cookie is still slightly soft in the middle

7.     Cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely

If you want to, you can dip one side of the cookie in melted white chocolate for an even more indulgent taste!