Sunrise Recipes: The ultimate chocolate muesli cookie recipe with oats, coconut and dark chocolate

Chocolate, oats and a drizzle of dark chocolate come together in this easy bake made for sharing.

Designer and author Kate Nixon shared her “ultimate” chocolate muesli cookie recipe from her book Everyday Joy.

Packed with oats, coconut and dried fruit, the cookies are perfect for lunchboxes or afternoon tea, with Ms Nixon describing them as “soft, chewy and delicious”.

Ultimate chocolate muesli cookies

Makes: 14

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter, softened and chopped into small pieces
• 140g brown sugar
• 55g caster (superfine) sugar
• 100g rolled (porridge) oats
• 75g oat bran
• 75g plain (all-purpose) flour
• 3 tablespoons shredded coconut
• 90g raisins
• 125g dried cherries or dried cranberries
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg (or freshly grated if you have it)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 60ml maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
• 200g dark chocolate, melted

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C.
2. Melt and brown the butter in a small saucepan, whisking over a medium heat for approximately 5 minutes. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, caster sugar, rolled oats, oat bran, flour, coconut, raisins, dried cherries, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
4. Whisk the egg, maple syrup and vanilla into the melted butter then add to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix well to combine.
5. Roll the dough into balls using an ice cream scoop (if you have one) as your measure and spread on baking trays lined with baking paper, lightly pressing down the tops of each ball.
6. Bake for approximately 12–15 minutes, swapping trays halfway through, until lightly browned around the edges and puffy and pale in the centre. Cool on a wire rack.
7. Melt the chocolate and, turning the biscuits over, spread a thin layer on the bottom of each, Florentine style. Leave for 10 minutes for the chocolate to set
8. To serve, stack into a large glass jar on the benchtop and watch them disappear throughout the day.

Tips

• If you have time to chill the dough before baking, even 30 minutes to an hour will make a difference to help the biscuits hold their height in the oven and yield thicker, chewier cookies. If you put them straight into the oven, they will melt a little as they bake and finish thinner and crispier.
• You can add in a handful of roughly chopped nuts for some crunch and swap out the dried cherries for sultanas or double the quantity of raisins if you prefer.

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