Cinnamon Sultana Oat Cookies

Adapted from the original post by The Bethnal Greens, with permission. Follow them on Instagram!

Ingredients: (approx. 20 cookies)

1 cup dates (roughly 10 dates) *
1 cup jumbo or rolled oats *
1 cup oat flour (1 1/4 cup of rolled oats ground into a flour - you can use your blender) *
1 cup sultanas *
1 tbsp ground cinnamon *
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt *
2 rounded tablespoons of peanut butter (or any nut or seed butter) *
2 tablespoons cooking oil (we used rapeseed oil) *
* ingrediants from get Loose

Method:

Soak the dates in warm water while preparing and measuring other ingredients (approx. 10 min)
Blend 1 1/4 cups of rolled oats in a food processor, blender or mini chopper.
Place the oat flour along with the rolled oats, sultanas, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl and mix well
Discard the soaking water from the dates and place them in the food processor along with the vanilla, oil and nut butter and blend to a paste.
Add the paste to the dry ingredients and mix well to incorporate
Place the cookie dough into the fridge for about 10 minutes, this will allow the oats to absorb some of the moisture and a colder dough is easier to shape
Preheat oven to 180C
Roll golf sized balls of dough and place them on a lined baking tray and then press down on them using the palm of your hand into discs roughly 2 cm thick
We baked ours for around 15 minutes and they came out nice and chewy with a little crunch, but ovens can vary so keep an eye on them after the first 12 min or so checking to see that the cookies are not burning at the edges
The cookies will come out moist and may seem underdone, but they need to cool completely before they harden. If, like us, you find it hard to wait, go ahead and have a few, they are delicious when warm.

The recipe could also handle a variety of alternative ingredients and combinations, for example sour cherries, walnuts or chopped dried apricots. Let us know what you tried in the comments below!