Uncooked cookies

I adored these cookies when I was a child. We didn’t have them often – I imagine my mum considered them too sugary to make them regularly. I even remember her telling me she’d lost the recipe, and making her usual granola cookies instead. Their unbaked nature intrigued me as well. They didn’t even need chilling to morph into these lovely balls of chocolatey deliciousness.

Cleaning out the store room under the family home, I came across a box of my old schoolwork that had been tucked away for a couple of decades. Leafing through one of those class cookbook projects, I discovered the recipe for uncooked cookies among those for cabbage rolls, five-layer dinner, sloppy Joes and sticky Jims.

These cookies do call for a generous amount of sugar. I was tempted to cut it back, but worried they wouldn’t set properly and I’d be left with a big bowl of sugary chocolate porridge.

So like mum, I don’t make them as often as the girls would like. As there are no nuts allowed on school premises, I often replace the walnuts with sunflower seeds, other dried fruit, rice krispies – whatever I have on hand – so I can include them in packed lunches.

Uncooked cookies
(makes about 30)

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1. Bring the sugar, butter and milk to a full boil in a saucepan. Boil for two minutes, stirring constantly.
2. Remove the mixture from the heat, and stir in the cocoa, vanilla, rolled oats, raisins, coconut and walnuts.
3. Drop from a spoon onto baking parchment and allow to cool.

Tags: biscuits, chocolate, cookies, oatmeal, vegetarian