If it has oats and fruit in, it's healthy, right? Even if it's a cookie recipe.

I rather like cookies, but don't usually have a ready supply of chocolate chips or any of those other things that make for an indulgent cookie. However, oats (of the porridge variety) and raisins (or sultanas. To stir into aforementioned porridge oats for breakfast) are things we usually have in the house. Also we are cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger addicts in this house, so some variation of spices is usually to be found in the cupboard.

In a major baking emergency a couple of weeks ago (read: we almost ran out of baked goods. In my kitchen that counts as an emergency) during which no one fancied cake, I found a couple of oat and raisin cookie recipes to try. Two weeks and three batches later, the recipes have morphed into my perfect cookie recipe (well. My perfect I-have-no-chocolate-chips-no-ready-made-cookie-dough-and-no-smarties cookie recipe, anyway). This isn't the strictest recipe in the world, and substitutions can be made at will without much of a detrimental effect on the cookies.

The recipe below makes one big batch (at least two dozen good sized cookies). I did try making half and freezing half the dough to bake a few days later, but we ate all the dough before managing that. On balance, probably better to bake the lot.

Baking Emergency Cookies

225g butter (I suppose you could replace this with something cheaper like margarine, but I do rather love butter)
225g soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 good teaspoon vanilla extract
200g plain (all purpose) flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (we love cinnamon, so you could reduce this. We have also substituted various combinations of ground mixed spice, ground ginger and ground nutmeg)
1/2 teaspoon salt (don't bother with this if you used salted butter)
250g porridge oats (any kind of rolled, whole, whatever oats you have)
150g raisins/sultanas

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 F)
2. Cream together butter, sugars eggs and vanilla extract until smooth
3. Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ground cinnamon and salt and stir until combined
4. Mix in the oats and raisins (use a spoon if you've been using your food processor so far, as the processor will probably mush them up)
5. Drop generously rounded teaspoonfuls on a greased/non-stick baking tray and cook for 10-12 mins until just golden. Be aware these cookies don't spread as quickly as some other cookie recipes, so if your mix is quite stiff squash the blob of dough a little flatter before cooking.
6. Lick bowl
7. Eat cookies
8. Eat more cookies