How to make sultana oatmeal cookies

The first time Dianne Elliott tasted sultana oat cookies she was hooked and had to find the recipe.

Sultana oat cookies. Picture: Robert Pozo

INGREDIENTS

250g butter, ½ cup of light or dark brown sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 tbsp vanilla, 1 tbsp golden syrup, 1 ½ cups plain flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp salt, 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats, 1 cup sultanas (soaked in hot water for 10 minutes and then drain)

METHOD

Cream softened butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. (Add dessertspoon of flour to prevent curdling.) Mix on high for one minute. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl regularly. Add vanilla and golden syrup.

Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together, add to wet ingredients.

Add sultanas and mix well.

Chill dough for one hour. Mixture will be sticky. Preheat oven to 160C. Line two large baking trays with baking paper. Roll one heaped dessert spoon of dough into a ball and press flat lightly. Repeat, and place them 5cm apart on the baking trays. Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned but still soft. Cool on trays. Enjoy!

Cookies hit sweet spot

The first time Dianne Elliott tasted sultana oat cookies she was hooked and had to find the recipe.

She and husband Colin were enjoying a motorhome convoy holiday at the time and travelling from Anchorage, Alaska, to Canada, then to Montana and Yellowstone National Park and finishing in Seattle.

One day, they were enjoying afternoon tea beside a lake in the mountains near Jasper, in Canada.

Dianne Elliott. Picture: Robert Pozo

Mrs Elliott, 72, of Gilead, had bought the cookies from a supermarket and said they were so delicious that they became afternoon tea for the rest of the trip. “I was hooked, they were delicious,’’ she said.

“When we arrived home I used the internet to track down a number of recipes for these cookies.”

She said the recipes she found contained a lot of sugar, so she cut the amount by half.

The recipes also contained raisins and molasses and she replaced these ingredients with sultanas and golden syrup.

“I make them gluten-free for my grandsons by using gluten-free flour,’’ the grandmother of four said. “Rolled oats have a very low gluten content.’’

The cookies have become a favourite with her family and friends. “I feel they are reasonable healthy, with reduced sugar and lots of rolled oats,’’ she said. “I prefer to prepare food from scratch so that I know what it contains.’’