Chocolate Oaties

My husband loves biscuits, so as it was pouring with rain and I felt like baking something, I decided to make some for him.
What to make? I had half a tin of Carnation caramel in the fridge left over from a cake recipe my daughter tried, so thought I'd use some of this - not much, as it's so sweet. I like a biscuit with a crunchy outside but a soft centre, so decided to use oats and some plain chocolate to get the sort of biscuit I wanted. A couple of tablespoons of caramel would give it extra flavour, and add to the softish centre.
I found plenty of oat biscuit recipes on the net, but couldn't find just what I wanted, so I used a basic oat recipe and added my own tweaks to it.

I made 15 chocolate oaties from this recipe.

Preheat oven 180C/gas4

100g butter, 100g soft brown sugar and 2 tbspns of Carnation caramel - spoon these into a pan and melt gently till all the sugar and butter have dissolved.
100g sr flour, 100g oats and 1/2 tspn of bicarbonate of soda - put these in a bowl and mix together then add to the butter mixture with 100g of plain chocolate broken into pieces. Beat well.
Grease 2 baking sheets [or use silicone sheets on baking trays] and spoon dessertspoonfuls of the oat mixture onto the trays, leaving space for them to spread. I put 8 on one tray and 7 on the other.
Bake for 15 mins, then leave the oaties on the trays for 5 mins to harden and put onto a wire rack.

We didn't wait long to try them with a cuppa and they were just right - crunchy and with the softer centre I like, and they have a great chocolate flavour.

I'll certainly make these again, but think I'll try them without the chocolate and add cranberries or sour cherries - there are lots of variations to try.