'Wartime' Oat and Chocolate Biscuits Recipe

Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce follows the story of Emmeline Lake, a feisty young woman who dreams of becoming a lady war correspondent. However, on the path to her ideal role, she ends up working at a women's magazine where it is her job to type up letters for the problem pages. Her formidable boss, Henrietta Bird, gives Emmeline a list of topics that should not be included in the magazine, through fear of causing embarrassment. But, when Emmeline reads some of these 'troubled' women's letters, she realises that they are from people, not unlike her, who just need some support and a friend. Risking everything, Emmeline begins to answer these women in secret. Dear Mrs Bird is a war romance story at its heart, so that should give away some of the story line too. But I won't say much more than that! To celebrate how much I loved this book, I thought I would create some 'wartime' oat biscuits, however, with the added luxury of chocolate!

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This recipe is taken from Good Housekeeping, follow the link here to see more.

Ingredients:

125 g butter, plus extra to grease 125 g self-raising flour 125 g light brown soft sugar 125 g porridge oats ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tbsp. golden syrup (I used honey as we didn't have golden syrup) 125 g milk or plain chocolate, melted

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4 and lightly grease two baking sheets. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, oats and soda. Set aside.

2. In a small pan, melt butter and golden syrup. Add to the dry mixture and combine.

3. Divide mixture into 16 and squeeze each portion into a ball. Arrange on the baking sheets, spacing apart, and squash down a little.

4. Bake for 15-18min until golden. Leave to cool for 3min on the trays, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Biscuits often seem like they aren't quite cooked when you remove them from the oven, sometimes they just need to cool down to harden up.

5. Drizzle the chocolate liberally over biscuits. Transfer biscuits to a wire rack and allow to set before serving.