Pistachio & White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Sometimes I like to bake on a whim. As I have two jobs, a work free weekend is quite rare and sometimes it's hard to find time to do the baking and photograph the said baked goods before the sun sets and all the natural light disappears. Sometimes I try to convince myself and think 'I'll be good' and not bake anything because let's face it, baking experiments = taste testing = bye bye any hope of bikini bod. (Not that my figure has ever resembled anything remotely close to a bikini bod...) Just not eat any you say? Gee, I'm good but I'm no superwoman! 

Usually in these circumstances I would make a half, sometimes even quarter batch of the recipe I have in mind. That way I'm reminding myself that it's only a small batch, I need to share the tray of awesomeness that has just left my oven and not be tempted to eat the lot. 

And after all my official guinea pigs taste test and concur that the experiment I had just carried out indeed produced the most delicious thing they had eaten all day, I proceed to make another batch. 

Because they were just that good. 

This was exactly what happened this past weekend. I promised myself I wouldn't bake, I was far too busy doing other things (even though technically I did have the weekend off work.) But it was a gorgeous sunny Sunday and I had done most of my chores and even though I was majorly sleep deprived from a late Saturday night out, I was just so happy that I had time to myself. I didn't have to wake up at 6am, deal with difficult hotel guests and clear dirty plates. I was happy knowing I had the choice to do things as simple as going for a morning run, spend time with friends I haven't seen in a while, have a laugh, enjoy awesome food and stay out until 5am because I knew I could have a lie in. When you're happy you're more inclined to do other things that make you happy and cooking/ baking in my kitchen is undoubtedly my happy place. 

I could definitely get used to this freedom.

Sometimes it's just easy to forget and not treasure the little things in life and the many things you could do if only time permitted. Life is too short to be wasting time... so go ahead and bake these cookies. Because it will definitely be worth your while.

PISTACHIO & WHITE CHOCOLATE OATMEAL COOKIES

Yields 12-13 cookies.

60g salted butter, very soft 

40g caster sugar

50g dark brown sugar

1/2 egg

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp vanilla paste

40g plain flour

40g strong white flour (bread flour)

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

40g pistachios, chopped

50g oat flour (blitz porridge oats in a grinder/food processor until it resembles flour)

25g white chocolate chips

Sea salt for sprinkling 

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Sift the flours and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.
3. Using a stand/ hand mixer cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla extract and vanilla paste and mix until incorporated.
4. Add the flour and mix slowly until just incorporated, followed by the chopped pistachios and white chocolate chips.
5. Roll into tablespoon sized balls and press down slightly. Sprinkle very lightly with sea salt and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until light golden brown around the edges.
6. Leave to cool for 10 minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

NOTES

• Lightly toasting the pistachios in a pan or in the oven before chopping gives the cookies a more fragrant aroma/
• If you don't have vanilla paste to hand, you may replace with vanilla extract.
• Sprinkling the tops of the cookies with a bit of sea salt is optional, but I find white chocolate too sweet so the slight saltiness offsets it well.
• Feel free to double the recipe so it uses a whole egg instead of half.