Crispy chocolate oat biscuits

This is said to be the chocolate oat biscuit recipe used by famous brands in both South Africa and the United States. It is also claimed that they are healthy because they use oatmeal (which is low in GI and contains antioxidants) and dark chocolate (everyone knows dark chocolate is good for you). We couldn’t care less if any of these wild claims are true or not; all we know is that these chocolate oat biscuits are crisp and adictively delicious.

The original American recipe was specific about using grated chocolate and choc chips, namely 6 ounces (180 gram) of chocolate chips and 240 gram (60 grams) of grated Hershey Bar. The South African version used similar quantities of chocolate.

We found it to be a robust recipe: it works equaly well when you chop up a 250 gram slab of New Zealand Whitakers chocolate, or 200 gram of choc chips. You can basically use whatever you have, but the more chocolate, the better.

Because the original recipe is huge, we quartered it. Feel free to double the recipe.

Makes 3 to 4 dozen biscuits.

Ingredients

  • 1¼ cup (310 ml) oatmeal
  • ½ cup (115 gram) butter
  • ½ cup (125 ml) brown sugar
  • ½ cup (125 ml) white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • ½ teaspoon (3 ml) bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 cup (250 ml) flour
  • ½ teaspoon (3 ml) baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon (1 ml) salt
  • 125 gram grated dark or milk chocolate
    and
    175 gram choc chips
    (or use 200 to 300 gram of whatever chocolate you have)
  • ½ teaspoon (3 ml) vanilla
  • ¾ cup walnuts or pecan nuts (optional)

Method

  1. Measure the oatmeal and process in a blender until fine.
  2. Mix the butter and both sugars together until creamy.
  3. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until fluffy.
  4. Add baking soda and salt.
  5. Fold in the flour, oatmeal and baking powder.
  6. Add chocolate chips, grated chocolate and the nuts. The dough should be firm enough to roll into balls, add more flour if necessary.
  7. Leave the dough to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  8. Roll into medium-sized balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.
  9. Bake for about 10 minutes at 180°C until golden brown. You can bake them a little longer if you like them crisp, but be careful not to burn them.