Roasted Almonds & Dark Choco Chunk Oaties

My daughter has finally fallen in love with oats. There was a time when the mention of oats in my house evoked a very alarmed and anxious response from my daughter. She disliked to the extent that she would rather go hungry than eat oats for her breakfast. My efforts to introduce oats in her diet would meet vehement protests from her. Her argument – “I eat everything Ma and heavens won’t fall if I don’t eat oats!” Sigh...I had no counter argument for that. She truly is any mother’s dream; virtually makes no fuss about food.However, after reading about the goodness and food value of oats, a few years back, I was rather disappointed by the fact that neither she nor my husband is enthusiastic about it. I believe for some people it is an acquired taste. He still has, over the years, developed a taste for it in its savory form but she won’t touch even that. My last hope was that perhaps she might give it a try as a baked finished good...and what better addition than chocolate to make it tempting for her.Very apprehensively I baked these cookies; keeping my fingers all crossed. And bingo! She loved them (despite calling them hideous looking) and they were all gone within 2-3 days! She found it hard to believe that the cookies had oats in them and yet could taste so great. Phew! What a relief that was and what a triumph too! She is now hooked on to them. So grab the recipe and get going!2 cups rolled oats1 cup all purpose flour (Maida) 1 tsp soda bi-carb (baking soda)1¼ cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped (adjust the amount)½ cup almonds1 tsp vanilla essenceA pinch of salt¾ cup scant butter 1 cup scant demerara sugar (Feel free to use caster sugar or brown sugar instead)1 eggSlightly grease the baking sheets with butter. Keep aside.Roast the almonds in a pan on a medium low flame. Stir now and then. (I usually keep them covered with a lid on a low flame and stir them once in a while. This helps me do other jobs around the kitchen while the almonds are roasting) Remove them from the heat once they change their color and become slightly aromatic. Cool and roughly chop them.In a large bowl, sift together the APF, salt and baking soda. Stir in the oats and mix them well. In another large mixing bowl, beat the sugar and butter till light and fluffy. Add egg & vanilla essence and beat again. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir them together. I use my hands to mix the ingredients together.

(You can drop the batter by table spoonfuls however, i prefer to give them a round shape and flatten them with either the back of a small glass or a bowl)Make walnut sized or bigger balls between the palms of your hands. Gently press to flatten them, keeping their round shape, to about half an inch. For thin and crispy cookie, flatten them further. Place the flattened cookie dough on the prepared baking sheets and bake them for 12-15 minutes at 180 degrees C. Note: To make the cookies healthier, I substituted half a cup of APF with wheat flour.Note: I prefer small sized cookies, but feel free to make them bigger in size. Note: If you prefer the cookies chewy, bake them till their edges turn brown. For crispier ones, let the whole cookies nicely brown.
Note: Feel free to adjust the amount of sugar, chocolate and almonds since I have used them as per my family's preference.

Yields: 35-40 Cookies the size shown in the pics

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