December 5, 2010
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…vegan peanut butter oatmeal cookies…
one thing about being vegan at christmas is that it confuses my sense of gift-giving. since i love to bake, my go-to gift for family and friends has always been a heaping helping of assorted baked goods; however, when you’re vegan, not everyone is apt to trust your baked goods. heck, they sketch me out sometimes, lol. it’s been a busy year trying to figure out where i stand on all the various vegany traits and customs, especially since our area tends to be about as unfriendly to counterculture as it comes. go ahead, try to find organic brown rice syrup or spelt flour at the average grocery store in small-town southern america. LOL. anyway, one of my goals for next year is to reinstate myself as a baking wizard–or at least to become accomplished enough at vegan baked goods that people will try them (and therefore, perhaps, enjoy them)!
peanut butter oatmeal cookies. as low fat and low cal as a peanut butter cookie can get–and you’d never know they were vegan!
thanks to a challenge (of sorts) put forth by lex to head in the direction of consuming less preprocessed foods, i’ve been feeling pretty creative this week. so yesterday afternoon, i thought: okay, what’s one vegan thing that i have a ton of that would make a good dessert? not surprisingly, my answer came down to peanut butter. i always have a giant tub of peanut butter around (makes it super-easy for me to get protein and fat that i don’t get otherwise. oh, on that note: other butters are better for you than peanut butter, but i live on a pretty tight food budget…not a lot of sense in grabbing that eight buck cup of almond butter when i can get about twelve gallons of crunchy pb for the same price. maybe one day, lol.) anyway, as always i turned to the internet for answers–and, as always, the internet provideth! peanut butter oatmeal cookies–coming in at just under ten ingredients (all normal and easy to locate!) and with a description that sounded irresistible–i had to give them a shot
since i’m sharing, you know they must be good!vegan peanut butter oatmeal cookies
- 2 c. flour (i used 100% whole wheat, because it’s delicious!)
- 2 c. oats (again, 100% whole, steel cut)
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 3/4 c. peanut butter (i chose chunky, because i like the crunch
) - 3/4 c. applesauce (opt for the plain, no sugar added kind. it’s so yummy!)
- 2 c. brown sugar
- 1/2 c. milk substitute (i use silk’s original almond milk for pretty much everything)
- 2 tsp. vanilla (go for pure extract instead of imitation if you can. it’s worth the extra two bucks.)
***note*** for a richer flavor, you can use 3/4 c. peanut oil or use a 3/4 c. combination of peanut oil and applesauce. making this with applesauce only is the lowest fat, lowest calorie way to go.
1) preheat your oven to 350F.
2) in a large bowl, mix the flour, oats, baking powder, and salt.
3) in a second large bowl, mix the applesauce, peanut butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla until well blended.
4) combine the dry and liquid ingredients and mix until moistened and combined thoroughly.
5) according to the original recipe, you should be able to roll this mixture into balls and flatten them with a fork…my mixture was the consistency of a drop cookie. i dropped the first pan, but then tossed the mix in the freezer for about an hour after which i was able to roll it with no issue; however, i think the drop cookies looked much more appealing. to kinda quote lex, the drop cookies look better to me, but the rolled ones would be better if you’re serving them to an omni.
6) flatten the balls with a fork first one direction, then the other direction (like an X).
7) bake 10 to 12 minutes (or until cooked through) and let cool before removing from the pan.
i used a silicone baking mat, which seemed to work perfectly for these.
if you make ‘em and love ‘em, then pass ‘em on!
i got this recipe from theveggiegal.com, but the comment thread at the end indicates that she, perhaps, found it somewhere else, so i’m not sure who to give original credit to.
lex and i actually had a whole evening of vegan culinary excitement. here’s what he was up to while i was making cookies.
lex working on the sauce for his pasta. he makes the most amazing pasta dishes!
mmm, fresh off the burner!
yes. those are vegan brownies. and they are to. die. for.
well, that’s it, folks. i’m off to do various other things now. enjoy the rest of your sunday!
