Crispy Toffee Oatmeal Cookies

So last night, we had a sudden cold-snap-snowstorm here in London. Aside from bringing the entire city screeching to a halt at the sight of six inches of snow, it gave us the opportunity to stay tucked indoors today. With the Superbowl later this evening, and the relentless eating and drinking that comes with it, after lunch we decided to grab some supplies and whip up a batch of lovely oatmeal cookies.

There are few things that make a home smell better than freshly baking cookies. It can be a frozen wasteland outside, in fact it's probably nicer if it is, but staring into a warm oven and watching little golden nuggets of cookie dough melt into bubbling medallions still fills me with glee. It's like being a kid and watching your mum bake all over again. And man, the first bite of a still-warm, slightly crispy, gloriously chewy cookie? Pure bliss.

These cookies are about as simple as it gets - very few exotic ingredients, all easily sourced at a decent-sized supermarket. It comes courtesy of my fellow goons over at Something Awful, and will deliver some incredible cookies no matter whether you're a seasoned baker or a total novice. Surprisingly, despite the ingredients they're not actually that sweet either. This is a bit of a double-edged sword - they're not sickly, but then you end up being able to eat three of them pretty quickly. The temptation to tear into them as soon as they're out of the oven is enormous, but give them some time to rest and then go to town.

Crispy Oatmeal Toffee Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup AP flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups quick oats
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
225g dairy toffee pieces, chopped finely

Cream the sugar and butter together until light and silky. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Chop up the toffee as finely as you can. If you get the toffee pieces that I did, when you chop them up they will shatter and send bits everywhere. I found it really handy to roll up a dish cloth around the outside of the chopping board to help catch the shards of toffee that fly away. 

Add the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt and fold until combined. Stir in the toffee and oats. Give it a proper go here, as the oats and toffee will make it seem like it's very dry but it will combine nicely.

Drop by the spoonful 2” or so apart on a greased pan. If you've got some baking paper, this will make it a lot easier to remove them as these cookies are very sticky when they're warm.

Cook for 8-10 minutes at 190C. Let cool on the pan for 2 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Once they're cooled completely, share with your loved ones (but only if you really love them).