‘Any soft drink plus popcorn only £7’. That was the sign we passed as we ascended the escalator to the cinema on Saturday night. Everywhere I looked, people were filling up on sweets from the pick and mix, tiny tubs of ice cream and those slightly scary looking nachos with their lurid toppings and takeaway odour. If you’re in the market for making money, cinema food is a serious business.
If you’re in the market for quality food, the cinema, sadly, is not it. It’s not that I object entirely to people mindlessly munching their way through a film – everyone needs an excuse to eat popcorn once in a while – but for £7 I’d prefer to see a little more homemade love and attention, pretty packaging, a lot more flavour and a little less grease. It’s the reason why, for as long as I can remember, I’ve smuggled my own popcorn into the cinema, or other sweets and treats including, on one memorably messy occasion, a contraband ice cream cone
On Saturday afternoon, the heavens opened and I hunkered down in my parents’ kitchen with the oven turned on and the radio turned up. The grizzly autumn weather had me a craving the comforting flavours of peanut butter, brown sugar and oats. These cookies are the result of that craving, packed with all that wholesome deliciousness plus chewy dried blueberries and melting pockets of chocolate.
I’d intended to package these up to take to the cinema – my smug food blogger alternative to an expensive bucket of popcorn – but ten minutes before we left the house, Luke and I decided to taste test ‘just one’ for quality control purposes. Eight cookies later (he had five, I had three – just saying), we bundled into the car to watch the film. I guess I could have brought the rest to the cinema and sold them off to the general public so happy to part with their cash, but some things are just too delicious to put a price on.
- 60g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 60g smooth natural peanut butter
- 125g soft light brown sugar
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 95g wholemeal or wholemeal spelt flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- pinch salt
- 125g rolled oats
- 100g dried blueberries
- 100g dark chocolate, chopped
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/Gas mark 4. Line two baking trays with baking parchment.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugar. And the beaten egg, a little at a time, until well incorporated. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking power, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
- Fold the flour mixture into the butter mixture until combined, then fold in the oats, blueberries and chocolate. Roll the dough into about 15 equal sized balls, then place each one on the prepared trays, pressing down gently to flatten. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
- Bake the cookies for 10 - 14 minutes until golden at the edges but still a little soft on top. You may need to swap the trays round half way through baking. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container for 2 - 3 days.
Other cookie recipes you might enjoy: Marbled Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Crispy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Chocolate & Pistachio Cookies
These look absolutely scrummy. Can’t wait to give them a go! I’ve been known to smuggle a yummy pizza in between library books, at a cinema where they felt the need to x-ray my bags! xxx
Cool new website! Cool cookies. I’m now craving cookies and coffee…
Mmm loving the looks of these cookies! Delicious!
YUM! Can’t go past a good oatmeal cookie – these look wonderful!
I just recently discovered the magic of dried blueberries in cookies and I can’t stop thinking about them. These are too good!
Aren’t they wonderful? Love love love.
Totally agree above the awful cinema food you get everywhere and the price – saw a couple with 2 kids spend nearly £30 on pure rubbish. As long as people lap up this rubbish things won’t change. I bring my own grub! Those cookies are on my to for list! X
mmmm this look perfect for dunking in my tea 🙂
I love dried blueberries in my cookies and I recently made an oat cookie featuring them – but I didn’t think to add peanut butter and chocolate. And after all, aren’t they the essence of life!
My sister and I often take the healthy route by smuggling in a kilo or so of grapes 🙂 or sometimes (in a lunchtime movie) I’ll sneak in some sushi rolls in my handbag! It’s the thrill of beating the cinema company at their game I suppose that makes the contraband even more delicious 🙂
Ha, I love the idea of smuggling in sushi! Although I’m sure I’d make a mess with all the wasabi and soy sauce and whatnot.
I never would have thought of putting blueberries with peanut butter but from your description, clearly I have been missing out and I certainly don’t want to any longer! I have to admit, I do rather like the lurid looking cinema nachos but avoid everything else. We’re all allowed the odd bit of junk food aren’t we?!
It’s such a good combination – sometimes I stir peanut butter and blueberries into porridge for breakfast too.
Kate, I fully support your plans to smuggle your tasty cookies into the theater;) Who needs that expensive crap they sell, anyway?
Hope you are getting a little break before the big launch of your book!
xoxo
E
Exactly! All’s good here, thank you – June publication day seems a long way away but I’m sure it’ll come around quicker than I think 🙂
Blueberry and peanut butter are two flavours I’d have never put together, and I bet the addition of PB made these cookies extra chewy! Do you think these would last long enough as a breakfast cookie?
When I was a lot younger my friend and I used to buy raw cookie dough from ASDA and eat an entire packet each… Oh, contra-dough. Those were the days! Also, I’m dying to know what you saw at the cinema! x
Yep, total chew factor. No crispy edges to these (which I love, but can live without). And wholesome enough ingredients that they’re definitely better for you than a croissant, so why not make them a breakfast food!
We went to see Nightcrawler – Jake Gyllenhaal is amazing but it’s super creepy, not sure I’d recommend! x
Pardon my ignorance, but I’ll be honest: I assumed the nachos with radioactive pourable cheese was solely an American movie theater problem. I feel so much better now :). I have an old-fashioned independent movie theater down the street from my house that sells popcorn with real butter (I hate that that’s actually a cinema luxury) and craft beers, though this is far from the norm. These cookies look like the perfect cinema snack (if they make it that far), and I like that you’ve packed some nutrition into them with spelt flour and oats.
Haha, nope, unfortunately they seem to have taken over our larger cinema chains in the UK too along with vats of luminous blue slush puppy. We’ve got a lovely independent cinema near us too – it’s in an old recording studios and they do great food before and after x
Cookies are my favourite – I can’t get enough of them! So I’m always looking for new recipes and flavour combos. Need to try this one =)
{Teffy’s Perks} X
These cookies and hot chocolate would definitely make this cold weather worthwhile!
Good to hear I’m not the only one trying to limit the sound of rustling from my bag as I walk into our local Everyman! These sound a rather scrumptious cinema snack and I wonder if the small fortunes to be made in the world of cinema food ought to be a theme for the next series of The Apprentice!
Absolutely unreal. Made these with my lil boo one night and we are the whole batch insanely fast. I don’t even think they made it til morning. The flavors and balance here are great. Thanks for the killer recipe!