Yes it’s back after a break, literally, I thought I’d better get cooking or in this case baking.
I’m up and about walking the trails in and around the mountains. And the walks are simply stunning. Walks through woods, walks along pisted tracks, walks with big hitting views, walks with great coffee and vin chaud stops. They all have something to offer.
Seeing the mountains at walking pace is wonderous, you get to notice detail, the deciduous trees are stunning with a light snow fall and a frost. The millions of crystals that form dazzle. Birdsong is audible, but only on sunny days, You notice the tracks of wildlife – hares, stoats, and deer.
And mountain walks are fabulous for getting me out and about and exercising. I feel energised. Even renewed, or certainly on my way to being so, even if I have to occasionally share my walk with a piste-basher!
And what better than to take a walk on a crisp morning and pack a few cookies in for the journey? I made a batch of Deb’s Oatmeal cookies. Not just your standard oatmeal cookies, but ones with almonds and apricots.
I halved her recipe, and I’m pleased I did as frankly my small bowls and whizzer wouldn’t have coped with a larger amount. It was probably not the most sensible recipe to tackle with a recovering fractured arm and torn muscles, as there was some chopping involved and a fair bit of mixing, plus my tiny hand-held mixer struggled a bit with the dough. But they came out a treat. The texture and taste are spot on. I might have added more fruit to the mix, but that might have been a bit OTT. They are lovely and buttery and crunchy.
The only other thing was that my cooking times were very different, I’m cooking at altitude and everything takes a lot longer. But I’m starting to suss that out now.
Want the recipe? Pop over to East Of Eden and get baking 🙂
On reflection maybe I should have made more, as they have rapidly disappeared!
Now I know where all of our snow has gone! The cookies look — and smell — delicious.
Hi kevin, yes it seems the snow is in the alps this year, we have about a metre and a half base layer on the pistes so the conditions are amazing.
Wow, that’s a lot of snow! Beautiful, though! I live oatmeal cookies, and the almond and apricot would just make them even better!
Hi there, I’ve never made any like this before it’s either been cakes or flapjacks, so combining them was a new one for me. and I’d definitely make them again
Just stunning photos… I’ve been absent from blogging for a bit, what happened to your arm??? How?? I hope you are now recovering, this walk would lift anyone’s spirits!!
As would those cookies!!
Thanks, taking the camera out with me is part of the fun, I get to do show and tell 🙂 The arm? well a small fracture and some torn muscles when skiing. A complete bummer! But on the positive side it’s not serious, and will heal, just SLOWLY! In the meantime I’ve started to walk, and it’s been wonderful to see the mountains from a different perspective.
benefits of almonds/a>
These look lovely. We like oatmeal cookies and often eat dried apricots and almonds as snacks so we have them around. Unfortunately, I just ran out of flour and will be a few days without it (making do with whole wheat flour, cake flour, all kinds of silly things).
Hi Sharyn, they were delicious, quite buttery. I just wonder how many different kinds of flour there are? I’m using chickpea flour in a recipe today 🙂
Oh good. I’ll look forward to seeing what you do with it — I have some chickpea and fava bean flour that I bought for one recipe and I haven’t figured out what to do with the rest of it.
another flour to learn about and try – Fava bean!
The flour I referred to contains chick peas and fava beans in combination — I’ve never seen plain fava bean flour.
Ah I see what you mean, sorry.I haven’t seen that combination before. thanks
No. No more biscuits please.
Ah go on now, you know you want to 🙂 To be honest I’m more of a savoury kind of person, and don’t bake very much so these recipes have been good for me, if not my waistline!
Absolutely stunning. Piste badgers scare me, I always worry about the people who have to drive them down steep mountains – I couldn’t do it! Those oatmeal cookies look perfect and I can see how they’d taste good with anything from hot chocolate and coffee to mulled vine and Genepi 🙂
They are scary aren’t they. We can see and hear them at night, with their beams on highlighting an area of the mountain and then when they reverse or change direction the arc of light gets thrown elsewhere.
And uh oh she mentioned the G word! Genepi 🙂
This is the beauty of snow… I haven’t seen snow like that in my city… But to be honest, I just love snow in the pictures 🙂 Otherwise there are a lot of snowy places like your photographs in my country too… It is nice for me to watch them, dear Claire… You captured such a beautiful photographs, it is not easy to take pictures of snow…. You did great. And yes, cookies… What a beautiful post… Thank you, with my love, nia
Thank you Nia, you are right about how difficult it is to take photos of snow. a lot of practice, jiggling with the settings, repeat attemptts, and a lot of hope! I think this week will be challenging as the light is very flat, slightly overcast. Claire
These sound delicious, and I love any oatmeal based cookie!
Thank you, I couldn’t recommend them enough 🙂
Wow these snowy pictures should be in National Geographic! I hope your arm recovers soon. Your cookies look as delicious as your pictures. Take Care, BAM
Thanks BAM, sometimes you get lucky as you are able to capture a moment. The arm is recovering, slowly. The one big problem I have is that it is very tricky to lift my arm and hold the camera, and take a picture! patience is needed 🙂 Claire
Sorry to hear about your fractured arm. That doesn’t sound good. Amazing you managed to make these cookies at all. I’d be on the couch! And that sure is a lot of snow. But with the blue skies above it just looks so magical. Such a contrast to life here in Sydney. You live in a very beautiful part of the world. Your walks must be incredible. Unless you fall over and break your arm of course!
Oh I love Sydney, I’ve only been there once, and I adored walking around the city, catching the ferries, watching the world go by, the galleries, the bars (!), the waterside areas, the parks. Such a friendly place (I was living in London at the time and it was sooooo different). Hope you have a great week 🙂
So glad you enjoyed the oatmeal cookies! You can tell we love our cookies, as I aways make the whole recipe, baking a warm batch when we are in the mood for sweets. I am in awe of your chopping and mixing abilities with your injury and am glad you are on the mend. Delightful winter photos. With all the sunshine we have had the snow seems quite exotic!
Deb it was a pleasure to make them, if not a little bit tricky! I don’t have a big pwerful food processor here so that was another reason to reduce the amount, as my poor little mixer did struggle as the dough is quite dense and heavy. But it was worth it 🙂
A fractured arm is more than an inconvenience! Your photos are lovely and I think your walkabouts must add to the healing. A fracture slows down time! The cookies are wonderful, too. They add warmth and restore a little harmony to a healing body! Debra
Hi Debra, yes I’m sure the walkabouts add to the healing – both physically and mentally. They get me out of the apartment, some fresh air, maybe see a few people (walkers are usually a very firnedly bunch).
what a perfect treat 🙂
Hi Tandy, they certainly were !
Gorgeous photos and such a lovely recipe. I know what you mean about cooking at altitude. We´re not anywhere near as high as you must be but things like roasting and even boiling veg and pasta take so much longer than for everyone else here!
It took me a while to realise what exactly was going on, and yes boiling takes much longer. I’ve heard horror stories of exploding cakes! Yikes!!
Ooh, delicious cookies.
🙂 Mandy
Thank you Mandy 🙂
Look at all that snow! I wonder how the Angel would react to it? (hubby’s trying to figure out how to bring her to France with us in the spring…)
Love the cookies!
Oh I bet her face would be a picture! There’s so much snow out here she’d have a blast. And taking her to France, I admire and encourage you on that one! In fact it sounds pretty crazy, but could be wonderful.
Fabulous photos! And the biccies look yummy too. 🙂
Thanks, it was a lovely walk with glimpses of bright blue sky
Now this I could, and would, do. Hiking around the mountains, admiring the vistas, checking out the wildlife, gazing upon the snow-covered pines. There’s no need to be flinging myself, willy-nilly, down the mountain at speeds approaching a bullet train’s velocity. And with these cookies in my pack, I could stay out even longer. Great post, Claire!
Thank you John 🙂 There is one teeeny problem, you’d have to get in the Bubble to get onto the walking tracks. Or of course you could start out at the bottom, and then do the walk! Maybe it would be best to go in the bubble and sing songs to distract yourself – I’m thinking for starters of “Ain’t no mountain high enough…” 🙂
Hmm, I wonder how oat groats would work in cookies. I bought a giant bag by mistake and now I need to figure out what to do with them. I will check out the recipe link!
I’ve never heard of oat groats before, so I’ve just been to have a look,and found that they are the hulls of the grains. they sound svery good for you, but I’m really not sure how to go about using them! Maybe flapjacks would work?
How white the mountain and yummy cookies. 🙂
The mountains are stunning, I’m very fortunate to be in such a beautiful place
Those cookies are so perfect a combination I can smell them from here! But the snow photos, I admit, are equally delicious. Sun dazzling off the face of snow is hard to match for beauty!
Hi Kathryn, sunshine days are truly superb. I feel well and truly alive when I feel the sun on my face
Those cookies look great!
Thank you, they were perfect, nice and buttery and crunchy
Those cookies look just the thing for me, as I love oatmeal cookies in any case, and the other ingredients just add to their charm. And it is wonderful taking a walk on a snow covered mountain. Sounds like a very good day!
The walks are beautiful, admittedly they are best in bright sunshine, the views you get are heart stoppingly stunning.