Things to Do on a Grey, Rainy Bank Holiday Monday

Alastair is working today, and I have been having an unaccountably fun day at home, interspersing bits of housework with blogging, chatting with family and friends on the phone and facebook and playing ZX Spectrum games - such fun and such a happy trip down memory lane! 

As the afternoon progressed and my housework drew to a close (apart from the ironing, which awaits me still), it went dark and started to rain.  It was all cosy inside, and my mind turned - naturally - to afternoon tea.

I fancied biscuits...but not ordinary biscuits.  Oaty, syrupy cookies of much deliciousness and magnificence.  And the BBC Good Food website more than obliged.  I baked a variation on its Bumper Oat Cookies recipe - no bicarb of soda as I didn't have any in, and dates instead of apricots, ginger and dried sour cherries (dried sour cherries?!  Yuk!).  I baked two versions, one in a baking tray which I cut into squares, as the mixture was very loose and I wasn't sure it would actually make cookies...

...and one batch of actual cookies which I gave five minutes extra on a slightly lower heat as per the recipe suggestion.  And I have to say, I think next time I'll just make cookies as they were very good.  You do have to do as the recipe says and allow plenty of room for spreading though, so you would either have to cook them in batches or use many baking trays.

 My cookies were so splendid that the cat and I had afternoon tea in the living room.

Purely in the interests of research, I sampled a cookie...

...and a square.

I thought both were delicious, and preferred the chewier texture of the cookie to the more cake-like square, although further tasting will be required to be absolutely sure. 

The cat declined to comment.