These cranberry and dark chocolate cookies are the perfect winter treat!

If you're stuck for present ideas now that the festive season is rolling around, homemade treats are great for pleasing even the most difficult people on your Christmas list.

These cranberry and dark chocolate cookies are perfect for winter – can you imagine how good they'd taste with a steaming mug of hot chocolate? In fact, who cares about presents – you'll want to keep these all for yourself!

The porridge oats make these cookies really moreish, but it's the cranberry and chocolate mix that make these something special. For a change, swap white chocolate for dark, and add in 25g or so of any chopped nuts you fancy – walnuts, pecans and hazelnuts all work well.

Cranberry and Dark Chocolate Cookies
Recipe makes 15

Ingredients

• 75g plain flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 40g porridge oats (not instant ones)
• 65g butter, softened and cut into cubes
• 35g brown sugar
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 40g dried cranberries, chopped into small chunks
• 75g good quality dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/ Gas Mark 4
2. Measure the flour, baking powder, salt and oats into a large bowl.
3. Measure butter and sugars into another bowl and beat together well. If you don't have an electric mixer, don't worry, you can do this by hand, it just takes some extra effort!
4. When the butter and sugars have reached a creamy texture, beat in the egg and vanilla.
5. Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt and oat mix.
6. Fold in cranberries and chocolate.
7. Roll the dough into small balls with your hands – use a tablespoon of dough for each ball.
8. Place each ball on a baking sheet greased with butter or lined with parchment, and press each ball down slightly with a fork
9. Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes
10. Remove tray from oven and allow cookies to cook for five minutes before removing cookies from tray. Allow cookies to cool further on a wire rack before eating.