Recipe: 'You'd never know it' cookies

These cookies are tasty treats, high in fibre. Photo / Doug Sherring

Whoops, I came to make these and realised I had no brown sugar. I used raw sugar instead. According to the recipe the cookies should spread a bit while cooking. Mine didn't, probably because of the different sugar (or my hopelessness at any form of baking). But the result was great. These tasty, not too sweet morsels would be good in a lunch box. They reminded me of eating a muesli bar without that horrible dryness.
Alison and Simon say the name comes from the fact that "you would never know by their taste or appearance that these biscuits contain relatively little oil and are high in fibre from rolled oats and wholemeal flour".

Makes 30-36

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 190C, with the rack just below the middle.

1 Measure the oats into a food processor fitted with the chopping blade and process until they resemble coarse flour. Transfer the processed oats to a large bowl and add the wholemeal flour, baking soda (make sure there are no lumps), salt, chocolate chips, sultanas and walnuts, and stir to combine.

2 Put the oil, egg and the sugars in the food processor and process until pale and creamy-looking. Add the vanilla and process again to mix.

3 Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until thoroughly combined.

4 Using two spoons, drop small walnut-sized piles of the mixture oven sheets lined with baking paper, leaving 4-5cm between each pile to allow spreading as they cook.

5 Place one tray at a time in the middle of the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Cool the cookies on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Extracted with permission from The Ultimate Vegetarian Collection by Simon and Alison Holst, published by New Holland, RRP $55.