These delicious crunchy oat cookies are quick and simple to prepare and, like the cup cakes, are another great last minute idea to take to school bake sales or have ready for Christmas. You could even bake a batch every week to keep at home for afternoon snacks, as they last well stored in an airtight container and the whole family will enjoy them!
Recipe for Oat Crunchies
2 cups quick cooking or regular oatmeal
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup cake flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup such as maple syrup
Preheat the oven to 350 F
Collect together: small saucepan, mixing bowl, cup measures, baking tray measuring about 14 x 10 inches
Put the butter, syrup and sugar in the small saucepan and melt it together, stirring occasionally, over a low heat. Don’t let it start to bubble or it will turn into toffee!
Put the rest of the ingredients into the mixing bowl and stir them together. When the butter mixture has melted, pour it over the dry ingredients and mix well till everything is evenly coated with it.
Grease the baking tray. Turn the mixture onto the tray, spread it out evenly and begin to press it all down with the back of a metal spoon. Make sure that it reaches all the corners and sides and is a fairly even thickness all over.
Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, when it should be a golden brown color.
Grab the oven gloves, take out the tray and with a knife mark out squares. This sized tray should make about 30 squares in all. Cut all the way down with the knife but leave the crunchies to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes, before turning them out to finish cooling on a wire rack.
There are loads of variations you can experiment with for yourself. Try one or more of the following:
replace 1 cup of oats with a cup of your favorite muesli
add ½ cup of chocolate chips
add ½ cup of mixed nuts
add 2 tablespoons cocoa for chocolate crunchies
add 1 teaspoon of either cinnamon or ginger to spice up the flavor
if anyone in your family can’t eat wheat, use rye or oat flour to replace the cake flour for completely wheat-free treats.
Did you know?
Crunchies are a traditional South African cookie – almost every family has their own favorite recipe for them.
In Britain they have the same recipe, but there they call them flapjacks!
OK, let’s practice some of your good baking skills by making something sweet today. These cupcakes are so light and fluffy you can see why they are called Fairy cakes in Britain! Cupcakes are great for taking to a friend’s house for tea, taking to your class bake sale, making for birthday parties or just baking for fun on the weekend.
The great thing about this recipe is that you can easily mix it all up in the food processor, so it is really quick to make. So it’s perfect for those times when you remember a school bake sale only just before bedtime the day before.
You can have fun with the frosting on these too. If there is some food coloring in the pantry, try experimenting with colors … you’ll find you don’t need very many drops of red color to get bright Barbie pink. Make one bowl of white frosting and one of pink and get creative with two tone patterns. If you don’t have any food coloring in the house you can add a tablespoon of cocoa to the powdered sugar to make chocolate frosting.
Light and Fluffy Cupcake Recipe
1 cup cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch salt
½ cup / one stick soft butter
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Collect together these things: the food processor, 12 cup muffin tray, paper muffin cases, measuring cups.
Put all the ingredients except the milk into the food processor and blitz it.
Add 2 tablespoon of the milk and blitz again. It should be smooth and drop easily off a spoon when you tip it. If it is still too thick, add the last spoon of milk.
Put a paper muffin case in each cup of the muffin tin.
Use a dessert spoon to dollop the mixture into each of the cases.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes. Check after 15 minutes – they should be a light golden brown when cooked and if you gently touch the top of one it should be springy and not leave a dent in it.
Cool them on a rack.
When they are cool it is time to play with the frosting. The simplest frosting is just powdered sugar mixed with a little water. For this amount of cakes use 2 cups of powdered sugar and add 1 tablespoon of water at a time – you’ll be surprised how little water you need to make it into a thick but smooth paste. Add coloring a few drops at a time and mix well to see what color you’ve got to.
Put about one teaspoon of icing onto each cupcake, let it drizzle down the sides and then add sprinkles or make letters with silver balls.
If your Mom has a piping bag for frosting, ask her to let you experiment with it on your cupcakes. With the smallest nozzle fitted you can try drawing simple shapes and patterns with a contrasting color frosting, for totally cool personalized cupcakes!
