Fruit and Nut Cookies with Powdered Oats

 Its kind of monsoon in Salt Lake during the month of August, also heavy rain back in Kerala, where my cousins in "Kuttanadu "enjoying school holidays because of flood, but this year its less compared to last time when  they said they could do  fishing while sitting in their bedroom ...what a wonderful thing to do :)

Though I know people are suffering too its not easy to get back to normal, once this happens. 

Love the smell of soil when it rains , love to watch rain and the  next interesting thing to do when it rains is to enjoy some snacks , any thing fried is what everyone prefers but this time I decided to go healthy.

Cookies are a great addition to our pantry shelf too as these are snacks which kids prefer to have any time of the day, came out really well , hence a must try recipe for anyone who likes to bake cookies at home. 

Ingredients 

May make these with only All purpose flour but then addition of powdered oats makes it super nutritious.

Oats - 1/2 cup (I used Old Fashioned Oats)
All Purpose Flour - 1/2 cup
Baking Powder - 1/4 tsp
Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp
Butter - 1/2 cup (In room temperature)
Dry Fruits and Nuts - 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup - I used chopped Dates , Blue berries, Raisins and cashew Nuts

Method 

* Preheat Oven to 300 Degree F

* Bake old fashioned oats in a tray in 300 F for 5 to 8 minutes , remove from tray and grind to fine powder. (May even fry these constantly stirring for 10 to 15 minutes until they turn light brown ,then grind)

* Sift together All purpose flour + Powdered Oats + Baking powder + salt , keep aside.

* Beat Butter(in room temperature) with powdered sugar , slowly add the flour ingredients (Sifted ingredients) to it and mix , add vanilla essence , gently knead these to a nice smooth dough.

* Add the dry fruits to the dough and knead again, make Lemon sized balls with the dough and arrange these on to a baking tray lined with parchment paper or foil.(Leave space in between each ball's as they expand while baking)

*  Lightly press the top part of each dough - ball's to flatten it a bit (Not much) and bake in 300 Degree F for 15 to 20 minutes , until the sides looks brown (it would be good if you turn the baking tray in between to get all cookies evenly baked and stays crispy too)

Notes : May use instant oats instead of old fashioned oats if then , may grind it without heating it too, though heating or baking the oats (before powdering) helps to grind'em easier. 

     

           : Dough may look dry , use hands to combine the ingredients together as then its easy , if still dry may use a couple of table spoon of melted butter just to make'em combined. 

Listening to a  romantic song from a Malayalam movie - featuring Rain , love and "Kuttanadu " ;) 

Happy Weekend....

Cheers

TN