Sim­ply Every­thing Spicy Oat­meal Cookies

This recipe is what hap­pens when you need some­thing that six ram­bunc­tious chil­dren can cook at an after-school club with­out 1) turn­ing on a dan­ger­ous burn­er, or 2) wield­ing a knife.  It also has the ben­e­fits of pro­vid­ing lots of lit­tle tasks so that every­one has some­thing to do, it con­tains no nuts, and hey!  There’s fruit!  And choco­late!  They’re quite sim­ply the most per­fect cook­ies known to chil­dren any­where.  (Our door­men love them too, as do my rav­en­ous bell-ring­ing friends.)

220g soft butter

300g Demer­ara sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanil­la extract or the seeds of one vanil­la bean pod

200g plain flour

1 tsp bicar­bon­ate of soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

250g rolled por­ridge oats

200g mixed fruit (or plain raisins, sul­tanas, dried blueberries)

200g tof­fee choco­late chopped rather fine (or choco­late chips)

In a stand mix­er, or by hand if you have a lot of chil­dren to occu­py, cream togeth­er the but­ter, sug­ar, eggs and vanil­la till fluffy.  In a sep­a­rate bowl, mix all the dry ingre­di­ents up to the oats.  When ful­ly mixed, add this dry mix­ture to the but­ter mix­ture, then add the oats, fruit and chocolate.

Spoon onto a bak­ing sheet in what­ev­er size you like and bake at 180C/350F for about ten min­utes or until slight­ly browned.  Cool slight­ly before remov­ing to cool­ing racks.