From the Castle Kitchen: Oatmeal Cookies- Premium!

Oatmeal Cookie Premium

with amaretto-soaked sultanas and ever-so delicately roasted walnuts, it is impossible to just have one

Serves around 36 cookies

Note: weight given in ( ) is not to be confused with volume

The recipe below is written exactly how we bake these sweet and savoury morsels. And, as with every dish, quality ingredients make all the difference. That said, if you do not have access to fresh-churned butter or bio flour made from seasonally milled wheat - don’t sweat it! Regular quality brands offered at the local grocer’s should do just fine.

Wet Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) amaretto

• 1 block (200 g) fresh-churned bio butter, semi-soft (not room temperature but not hard as a brick either, and cubed)

• 1 cup (200 g) of brown sugar (you could probably get away with a bit less)

• 2 free-range eggs, beaten

Dry Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup (225 g) of traditionally milled all-purpose flour, free from improvers, preservatives or chemical additives - ours is from local Młyn Skokowa

• 270 g bio rolled oats

• 2 1/2 tsp cinnamon, or self-grate 1 cinnamon stick

• 4-6 cloves crushed into fine powder, can be done with the back of your kitchen knife or in a mortar and pestle

• 3/4 tsp baking powder

• 3/4 tsp baking soda

• pinch of sea salt

Secret Ingredients

• 100 g toasted walnuts, chopped

• 150 g of sultanas (raisins), soaked in 50 ml of amaretto (for at least 20 minutes)

• few flakes of Maldon sea salt to garnish each cookie before going into the oven

Start by placing raisins in to a medium bowl, pouring 50 ml of amaretto over top. Set aside. Raisins will plump up slightly as they absorb the amaretto over 20 minutes or so while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius - 350 degrees Fahrenheit

To toast your walnuts, place shelled albeit whole nuts onto parchment paper and bake for 3-4 minutes in the oven, or until you will notice that their color becomes richer and a touch darker. You do not want to burn them so keep a good eye on them. Once ready, remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Portion out your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together with a wooden spoon. You should be able to smell the spices. Set aside.

In a second large bowl, combine amaretto, sugar, and butter and beat together. Beat the eggs with a fork in a separate, smaller bowl and then add the eggs to the batter. Fold them into the mixture with a spatcula. Set aside.

Take cooled walnuts and chop into smaller pieces. Set aside

Add the dry ingredients into the large bowl of wet ingredients, bit by bit, stirring each time with a wooden spoon until incorporated. Add in the amaretto-soaked raisins and the toasted walnuts.

Roll cookie dough into 2.5 cm (one-inch) wide balls between the palm of your hands and then gently press down between both palms until you have plump circular cookie shapes. Place on parchment paper lined tray, spaced out evenly. Cookies will not spread out too much, though you do not want to overcrowd them. I leave a finger or two width a part.

Sprinkle Maldon Sea Salt flakes over top cookies.

Bake at 175 Celsius for about 12 minutes, or until edges of cookies are lightly golden. When done, remove from oven and set aside for just a few minutes. These need to cool for 3-5 minutes to firm up.

Serve warm after resting for 3-5 minutes. Enjoy as is, or with a small scoop of vanilla or salted-caramel ice cream on the side.

TIPS:

Bio-butter softens quickly and is a dream to work with just minute’s after rooming from the fridge.

Juicy raisins stored properly will make all the difference compared to those dried out like prunes.

Enjoy!