One of the challenges we face as parents packing real food in our kids lunchboxes, is what other kids have in their lunchboxes. One way we can overcome this is by packing foods which our kids associate with being fun and sweet like treats but without the additives and preservatives you get with packaged processed foods. These Chewy Oat and Date Cookies are the perfect fun and sweet like treat for the lunchbox. You only need one of these in a lunchbox – they are packed with oats, dates and chia – naturally sweet and filling too. They also freeze well, so they are extra perfect because you can make this batch of 20 and pop them in the freezer to use over a couple of weeks.
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup self raising flour (I used Orgran GF Self Raising Flour)
- 2/3 cup oats
- 1 tblspn chia seed
- 6 dates chopped roughly
- 75g butter
- 1/3 cup rice malt syrup
- 1 tblspn tahini
- 1 tblspn milk
Method
- Preheat Oven to 180 degrees
- Mix flour, oats and chia seed in a bowl
- Over low heat, melt butter, dates, rice malt syrup and tahini
- Once melted, add milk and stir to combine
- Mix buttery goodness into dry ingredients until all moist
- Take a heaped teaspoon of mixture and using another teaspoon, place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Continue with mixture
- Bake 10 -15 minutes until golden, allow to rest 5 minutes before placing on wire rack to cool
Store
Store in an air-tight jar or container. I then store in the freezer, and pop them straight into the lunchbox. They defrost by recess time. As an added bonus, these cookies are equally delicious straight out of the freezer too.
2 Other Ways
- Chocolate chips are always an extra special addition to any cookie or muffin so had a couple of tablespoons at step 2
- Drop the chia seeds and add some chopped pepitas or sunflower seeds