Baking Day....Date, Chocolate & Coconut Biscuits

So its Monday, which means I need to bake something for the baking tin. I confess I make Mr Hooper's lunch every day before he trudges off to school, its either that or a mince and cheese pie. He is easy to please, his sandwhiches generally consist of cheese, cheese and ham or egg. But I am committed to ensuring he has a sweet treat after the rather average sammies.


These biscuits are a recipe I have adapted from a Nigella Lawson cookbook, Feast. They originally had dried cranberries and white chocolate, but I thought they fell a bit flat, so have modified the ingredients slightly.

If the biscuits last, they get better with a day or two behind them. By day 4 they are deliciously chewy.



So to begin....you will need


140g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
75g rolled oats
125g butter
75g brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or essence
75g dates, chopped
50g shredded coconut
140g dark chocolate chopped up, as chunky as you enjoy in a cookie.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Measure the flour, baking powder, salt and rolled oats into a bowl.


Put the butter and sugars into another bowl and beat until creamy.


Beat in the egg and vanilla.


Continue beating and add in the dry ingredients combined above.


Fold in the dates, coconut and chocolate.


Put the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.


Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls, put them on a baking tay lined with baking paper and squish balls with a fork. I needed to do two batches as I only have one tray. I also do a quick tray rotation half way through the cooking time.


Cook for 15 minutes, when ready the biscuits will be tinged pale gold, but they will be too soft to lift immediately off the tay, so give them 5 minutes to harden before transferring to cooling rack.

The nutritional info, per 100g : Energy 1842kj, Protein 5g, Fat 20g (Sat Fat 12g), Carb 55g (Sugar 35g), Sodium 142mg. A little bit naughty, but worth every chewy mouthfull.