Gluten-Free Oatmeal and raisin biscuits

I've been trying to save money recently to fund a two-year trip abroad which admittedly hasn't been easy. It's meant that the entirety of my wages goes into savings or towards paying off old debts and essentially living off of my tips to fund transport to and from work, food and any other amenities. Because the amount I get in tips varies, it also adds an extra layer of difficulty.

However, having limited funds has encouraged me to get creative on the entertainment front (especially on rainy days) and there's one particular challenge that I've taken a liking to. The challenge I've given myself involved scouring the cupboards for ingredients I already own to see what I can conjure up. Interestingly, I complain about having no food in the house when really, there's plenty.

After about 20 minutes of pulling the cupboards out, I found some gluten-free Quaker Rolled Oats, Raisins, eggs, butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar along with some cinnamon and mixed spice powder seasonings.

I thought - 'wicked, I've never made oatmeal and raisin cookies before!' and with that, I cracked on (baking pun intended).

I found a recipe to use as a guideline and made a few changes to suit my tastes. The recipe called for the following:

• 1 cup of Plain Flour
• 1/2 cup of butter (Room temperature)
• 1/2 cup of light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of Granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice
• 1 cup of raisins
• 1 and 1/2 cups of Quaker Gluten-free Oats

I debated following the instructions and adding everything as specified but decided to just chuck it all into the bowl and see what would happen.

I know... it was a risky move.

After about 15 minutes of kneading all the ingredients evenly into the bowl, I set it in the fridge. I'll be honest here, I don't know why I had to do this. The recipe I was using as a guide said to do so and it seemed important so I thought I better not risk that one.

I pulled it out about 15 minutes later and the dough was definitely tougher than when it'd gone in and I started to ball the mix.

(Disclaimer, I failed to read up on how many cookies this would make so about halfway into balling the mix and placing each one on the tray, I realised that I'd have to make slightly bigger/rounder cookies or buy another tray - For reference, this recipe makes 15 cookies)

Once they were balled and set to go, I placed them in my fan oven at 170˚ for 20 minutes and rotated them about 15 minutes in so they'd all cook evenly. I pulled them out once they'd browned nicely and set them on the side to cool and that was pretty much it, I'd successfully made oatmeal and raisin cookies!

I enjoyed a couple of these on the sofa with a hot chocolate in the late afternoon and it was bliss. It was pouring with rain outside, I was cosy and warm under a blanket and I'd kept myself entertained, not to mention I gained a tasty treat from it too.

For those of you that are interested, the website I used was super helpful. You basically input the ingredients you have and it suggests recipes. I'll leave the link at the bottom for you to check out!

Anyway, give the recipe a try. Let me know how you get on and if you liked them as much as I did!