RECIPE: Muesli and white chocolate rock cookies

Muesli and white chocolate rock cookies

It's my weekend off work, so unsurprisingly I have taken advantage of having a few extra hours by getting my bake on. Yay! Today's offerings: these chunky rock cookies.

It's a well-known fact that dried fruit, nuts and chocolate is a winning combo. Yes, a fact. Don't try and dispute it. I'm a big fan of white chocolate, and also of muesli, so quite frankly there was no way I wasn't going to like these cookies. I suppose I'd call them the love child of cookies and rock cakes, but whatever they may be, no-one's complained.

Brimming with whole nuts, dried fruits and chocolate, they're delightfully chunky and especially delicious warm from the oven alongside a cup of tea.

This recipe makes 24 sizeable cookies, so plenty to feed a crowd. Conveniently enough for my housemates, workmates, and some leftover just for me. Obvs.

Just out of the oven

Ingredients

450g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
225g unsalted butter, softened
225g soft light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g fruit and nut muesli
100g hazelnuts
150g white chocolate, roughly chopped


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line as many baking trays as you have with greaseproof paper (you'll probably need to re-use them as this recipe makes a lot.)

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with a handheld electric whisk until smooth and creamy (this takes a while.) Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Gradually add this wet mixture to the flour mix, beating after each addition, until well combined. The mixture should come together into a dough. Stir the muesli, nuts and chocolate in with a spoon.

Sizeable balls of cookie dough before being flattened on the baking tray

3. Take large handfuls of the mixture and press them firmly into tight balls (this prevents the cookies from getting too crumbly.) Spread the balls of dough out on your baking trays and press down slightly to flatten them a bit.

4. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until they start to turn golden brown, then leave to cool for a few minutes on the baking trays before transferring to a wire rack with a spatula to cool completely. Or, alternatively, eat them while the chocolate is still melty. Yum!

If you're a white chocolate fan, you may like to try my white chocolate and raspberry Victoria sponge and my white chocolate and raspberry blondies - yup, another winning combo there.