Oatmeal raisin cookies

I recently realised I’ve been obsessed with oats. Porridge and I go back to before anyone else was interested in cooking oats first thing in the morning. I ate muesli and granola, admittedly two-timing oats sometimes with barley flakes or rice; or playing three- or foursome, good God.

Bread making and oats go together too: oatmeal bread is one of my favourites and I hear there is a proper sourdough you can make using leftover porridge, that’s one to do. Oats on or in bread rolls; oats in sweet cereal bars and in savoury biscuits. Oats in oatcakes. Oats in smoothies. Oats in cakes? Yes, indeed.

There’s a bit of confusion namewise: as it often happens things are called differently here and stateside. What we call ‘porridge’ they call ‘oatmeal’; while for me oatmeal is powdery, milled oats. ‘Rolled oats’ have not been precooked in the UK but they might be in the US. And the very best for you, the long-burners, keep-you-full-till-lunchtime ones are called steel-cut (Am.) or pinhead (Br.)

And finally, cookies. Ahhh. That’s the peak of my love affair with oats because man, these are ludicrously lovely. I mention sometimes how I’m not that big on chocolate so you know what? You keep all the double, triple, fiftyple choc chip cookies in the world and I’ll have my oatmeal and raisin ones.