These Treackle Oat Cookies are really easy to make and a great way to fill up your cookie jar with a homemade treat. Homemade cookies and biscuits are always so much nicer than the ones you buy in the supermarket and you know exactly what has gone into them.
Adding the bicarbonate of soda to the butter, sugar and treacle mix is so much fun, it puffs up like puff candy and looks stripey like a tiger!
You only need small balls of the mixture and leave lots of space around them because they spread as they bake, making that thin, crisp and delicious cookie.
The balls of the mixture should be about the size of a walnut in its shell, the mixture wasn’t as sticky as I thought it might be and quite easy to roll. This quantity of mixture makes 18 cookies, that should fill your cookie jar.
When the cookies are baked let them sit for a couple of minutes then lift them off the baking trays and onto a cooling tray and once they are cooled you can eat them!

Treacle Oat Cookies
Ingredients
- 100 g self-raising flour sifted
- 75 g rolled oats
- 25 g desiccated coconut or mixed seeds (sunflower, sesame, pumpkin)
- 100 g butter
- 125 g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp treacle
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tbsp milk
Instructions
- Combine flour with oats and coconut
- Put butter, sugar and treacle into saucepan, very slowly bring to the boil, stirring all the time.
- Remove from heat. Add bicarbonate of soda dissolved in milk.
- Pour hot mixture on to dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Leave on one side for 30 minutes or until firm.
- Break off 18 pieces of mixture and roll into walnut sized balls.
- Transfer to buttered baking trays (leaving room between to allow for spreading), Bake in centre of moderate oven 170C for 10 -12 minutes.
- Leave on trays for 1 or 2 minutes before transferring to wire cooling rack. Store in an airtight tin when cold.
Notes
Nutrition
The verdict: FANTASTIC! I think these are some of the nicest biscuits/cookies I have ever made and I will be making them again, I would also try making them with golden syrup as I think that would work well too. This is a very adaptable recipe and you can vary the amount of coconut or replace with other chopped nuts or seeds
More Cookie Recipes from Farmersgirl Kitchen
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Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies
Sweet Gingerbread Men
Easy Cookie Recipes from Top UK Food Writers
Chocolate Melting Moments – Fab Food 4 All
Easy Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies – Lost in Food
Blood Orange and Ricotta Cookies – Christina’s Cucina
Isabella’s Ginger and Oat Cookies – Kavey Eats
Ooh I want that book Janice I didn't know it existed as I have the 2 later versions on my bookshelf and there are some great regional recipes in them! Your cookies sound great and I would leave out the dessicated coconut in favour of sesame seeds, best of all there is no rolling out and cutting with these cookies which can be such a fiddle! Thanks for sharing:-)
Thanks Camilla, you might find it on ebay or through a specialist book seller. It pretty much covers all aspects of cookery and the recipes are simple and well written.
There is nothing like finding that great cookie recipe that you know you'll cook again and again. I just live how dark these look too. It's a great post. Thank you so much for entering and showing off such a fab cook book with the most ridiculous cover! Xx
With rolled oats, coconut and treacle in them, how could they be anything but completely yummy?!
I no longer have my Dairy cookbooks -I long since took them to the charity shop, thinking the recipes were far too old fashioned…….how daft …… I wonder who's enjoying them now !!
These look fantastic, I have seen this challenge around a lot lately and am definitely going to have to give it a go its such a good idea.
oats! So they must be healthy, I do love rediscovering theses old recipes, and I have a tin of treacle waiting back in Richmond, so I think these will be baked very soon! Yum!
Dom – you are so right and I'm glad you enjoyed seeing the cover, I am so familiar with it I hadn't noticed how bizarre it was!
Jean – I hope someone rescued them, they do seem old fashioned but nothing wrong with the recipes.
Emma – oh please do take part, it's a lot of fun and makes you try cookbooks and recipes you may have overlooked.
Jude: Yes, of course they are very healthy 😉
Loving those biccies – my mum has that cookbook kicking about – must get it off her! Love the photo too Janice.
Lovely looking biscuits Janice and a super idea to use sesame seeds instead of coconut. I bet a couple of these would get you through a cold afternoon!
What a great random recipe! I'm pretty sure everyone has a copy of the Dairy Book of Cookery, I think I've even got 2! These Treacle Bites sound lovely.
Janice, how do you get your biscuits to look so uniform? Very impressive. They sound delicious too. I remember making biscuits quite a lot with treacle when I was young, but hardly ever use it these days – something has gone wrong somewhere!
And I so want your glut of oats – hard to imagine in this household where porridge is regular breakfast fare.
My Mum has that book and bought me the new version a couple of years ago. Great book.
Ah Choclette – most of them were not even, I picked the best ones for the photo!
these biscuits look lovely – I love treacle in baking. and they sound quite similar to anzac biscuits that we have in australia but we use golden syrup instead of treacle so I am sure these would be great with golden syrup
Wow, these must be good if they're the best biscuits you've ever made!! I just love the name…Treacle Bite. I'm also rather partial to porridge oats with treacle, so these would be right up my street…and I think my Dad would love them too! I might have to make a batch 🙂
I've made them today with golden syrup – a big thumbs up. Will definately make these again. Thank you
These sound and look wonderful. I am always on the lookout for a biscuit recipe that will freeze well uncooked and I suspect I could roll those little balls and freeze them to bake later. If I give it a try, I'll let you know!
Janice, thanks for adding these to the treats table. Cheers
So very pleased to find this recipe on the internet! My copy of the earlier edition of The Dairy Book of Home Cookery went AWoL when my daughter borrowed it at university. This recipe in particular was much lamented. Thanks so much for posting it!
Thanks Gill, they are super cookies, so crisp and with a rich flavour. Let me know if there are any other recipes you are looking for from the Dairy book.
These cookies look delicious I love treacle and will have to give these a try.
Thanks Lesley, they are really good.
Really love the sound and look of these, treacle is a great flavour with oats! Yum!
Thanks, Kavey. They are really great with a tea or coffee
I have 2 tins of treacle sitting in my cupboard as I didn’t know I had one and went and bought another when cooking with treacle last autumn – so I’ll be making these tonight. I can’t wait.
That’s great, do let me know if you like them.