Chocolate Oatmeal Brownie Bites

 

If you need a chocolate fix, these are for you. These cookies are soft, moist, with the texture of brownies (more cake like – not gooey) with a most satisfying chocolate flavor. And quick to make. Recipe makes about 20-24 small cookies depending on your scoop and how much cookie dough makes it to the baking sheet. Excellent raw if you go for cookie dough. Recipe is an adaptation of Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies from the Practically Raw cookbook.

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup cacao powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
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1/4 to 1/3 cup quick cooking oatmeal


Wet Ingredients
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
1/2 cup non-dairy milk
2 TB agave syrup
1 TB ground flaxseed
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Measure the dry ingredients (except the oatmeal)  into a large bowl. If any of the ingredients are clumping, take the time to sift them. Stir until combined.

Measure all the wet ingredients into a small bowl and whisk together. Add to dry ingredients. Mix well. Depending on how wet the batter is, add some of the oatmeal. Just add enough so batter is on the stiff side.You know, like cookie dough. The wetness factor depends on how thick/thin the almond butter is. The brand I've been using tends to be on the thin side so I use all the oatmeal.

Scoop onto cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Press and flatten. I like to use a fork. Bake 8 minutes and cool on rack.

Options: Add some chocolate chips.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Chocolatey Drizzle

Oh boy. These are good. I will have to say though that they have lots of sugar and fat, more than I usually bake with. I did use less sugar than the original recipe and the next time around I will use even less. I brought these to work and they were all gone by mid-afternoon which means everybody liked them. Here is the original recipe from The Sweet Life blog in all its glory with some stunning photos.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup organic all purpose unbleached flour
1 cup quick oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
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1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan butter
1/4 cup plus 2 TB Sucanat sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 TB organic cane sugar
1/2 cup + 3 TB pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
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chocolate drizzle (recipe below)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder and soda, spices, and salt. Mix together and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat with a mixer the vegan butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin puree and vanilla. Stir to combine.  Slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing together until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Drop cookies onto baking sheet, about 2 tbsp each. Press down lightly and bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges golden. Let sit for a minute and then move to a rack to cool. Drizzle chocolate over the cooled cookies. Let harden before putting into container.

Chocolatey Drizzle
1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips
2-3 TB vegan butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
2 TB or more of non-dairy milk

Directions
Heat chocolate chips and butter in microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until melted. Add vanilla, sugar and 2 TB of non-dairy milk and mix until smooth. Keep adding milk 1 TB at a time until thin enough to drizzle over cooled cookies.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolately with whole spelt goodness!

This is a wheat-free cookie made with spelt flour. It is adapted from a cookie reicpe in Let Them Eat Vegan by Dreena Burton. I seriously love this cookbook. Many times I buy a cookbook, look it over, think "that looks good," and put it on the shelf where it gathers dust. Not with this book. I've made many of the recipes and the majority have been wonderful. This cookie is one of them. My tasters were raving about them. Recipe makes about 14-20 cookies depending on how large your scoop is.

Ingredients
1-1/4 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 tablespoons blond coconut sugar
1/3 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
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1/4 cup plus 1 TB pure maple syrup
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil
4 tsp soy milk

Don't blame me if you eat it raw!

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare baking sheet with parchment paper. Sift dry ingredients into medium size bowl. Mix wet ingredients into small bowl. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until just incorporated. Drop onto cookie sheet. I like to use a tablespoon scooper. Flatten and bake for 11 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Try not to eat them all!


What I was baking last year in September...

Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chip Garnish

Chocolate Chip Oat Crispies

This recipe is adapted from the Monster Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies in Big Vegan. It is not my style of cookie but my group of tasters seemed to really love them. They are very light, airy, crispy and sweet.  They would probably be a great cookie for people who are suspicious of vegetarian/vegan foods. The original recipe also included a cup of raisins and a half cup of chopped walnuts. I just kept it simple.

Ingredients
2 TB ground flax seed
1/4 cup water
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1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
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1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
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1 cup rolled oats
3/4 to 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Get out your stand mixer. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a couple of cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.

Beat together the flax seed and water. If you have a little pesonal or Bullet blender, use that and "whiz" for 30 seconds or so. If you don't have one, no worries. Just mix it up and let it sit for several minutes.

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

In your stand mixer, beat the sugar, oil, vanilla and flax seed mixture until it's rather fluffy. Add the flour and mix. Add the oats and mix. Incorporate the chocolate chips. Don't worry if they don't all mix into the dough. Not a big deal.

Scoop tablespoon size blobs onto cookie sheet. Flatten. An alternative is to make 12 really big cookies; that was the author's original intention. If you have leftover chips, press them in here and there. Bake for 8 minutes and rotate pans. Bake for another 6 to 8 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chip Garnish

These are rather lovely peanut butter cookies, a bit lower in fat than usual, and each one has a single chocolate chip garnish – just for fun! My tasters really seemed to love this cookie. I enjoyed the chewiness and kind of wished I had put more chocolate chips on the top... Makes 24-30 cookies depending on how you scoop ‘em out. I used a tablespoon scooper and got 24 cookies.

Ingredients
1/2 cup organic sugar
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 cup plus 1 TB whole wheat pasty flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
-----
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, room temperature
3 TB canola oil
1/4 cup non-dairy milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
-----
24-30 vegan dark chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift sugar, flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into bowl. Stir so the dry ingredients are well incorporated. Combine peanut butter, canola oil, non-dairy milk, vanilla and vinegar in food processor. Pulse until smooth. Add dry ingredients to processor and pulse a few times until dough starts to come together. Transfer to a bowl and mix with your hands until dough is smooth. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls. Place on cookie sheet and press fork tines into top to smash each cookie and make a criss-cross design. Use your little finger or something else about 1/4 inch round and press a hole into the middle of each cookie. Place a chip into each indent. Bake each sheet of cookies for 8-10 minutes and lightly browned on the edges. Let cool a minute or two and transfer to rack.

Chocolate Chip Muesli Cookies

A couple of my co-workers have been raving about Bob's Red Mill Muesli cereal. Of course, I had to try it out. In case you don't know, Bob's muesli consists of whole grain rolled oats, wheat, rye, triticale and barley, dates, raisins, sunflower seeds, almonds and walnuts. While I adore steel-cut oats for breakfast I found I didn't care for the nuts in my hot cereal. There was a recipe for chocolate chip muesli cookies on the bag – sounds more my style. I have replaced the egg with a flax seed mixture and fussed a bit with the recipe. The little gems are lightly sweet and would be perfect to take along if you go for a hike. Makes about 36 cookies.

Ingredients
2 TB ground flax meal
3 TB water
-----
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 TB tapioca flour or starch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
-----
2 TB walnut or canola oil
1/2 cup apple sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
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1 cup Bob's Red Mill Muesli cereal
3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flax seed and water in small bowl and set aside. Mix flour, tapioca, baking soda and salt in another small bowl and set aside.

In medium bowl, mix oil, apple sauce, brown sugar and vanilla together. Add flax seed mixture and beat well. Add flour mixture, stir to mix. Add muesli and chocolate chips.

Spoon on to parchment covered cookie sheet. I like to use a tablespoon size ice cream style scoop. Lightly flatten each cookie and bake for about 10 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on rack.

Vegan Cookie Exchange

The local meet up group for vegans had a cookie exchange last week. I brought two different cookies, both from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Treats. If you only have one vegan cookie bookbook, this is the one to get. All of the recipes I've made have turned very well.

One of the recipes was for Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles. A video with Isa and the recipe is posted on http://www.theppk.com/blog/2009/09/16/mexican-hot-chocolate-snickerdoodles/. This was the recipe that convinced me to buy the cookbook. The only thing you might think about changing in the recipe is the amount of cayenne. It called for 1/2 teaspoon which may be too much for some people or kids. If you're "hot spicy" adverse, cut it to 1/4 teaspoon. If baked the full 12 minutes, these cookies are crispy. If you prefer a softer cookie, bake the shorter time.

Linzertorte Thumbprint Cookies

My other contribution to the cookie excahnge was Linzertorte Thumbprint Cookies. These were awesome little fat bombs! The ingredients called for hazelnut butter which I've never seen, let alone keep in my cupboard, so I substituted cashew butter. In my quest for perfection, next time I'll make the cookies flatter and the indent deeper so I can put more jam in cookie.

Both of these cookies will be on my Christmas cookie bake list this year.

Chocolate Chip Oaties

One of my co-workers saved my butt the other day so his reward was cookies. It just so happened that I had a discussion about wheat-free cooking with another co-worker so this recipe was perfect example to bring to work. There is no wheat flour in this cookie recipe, it's substituted with oat flour. If the batter doesn't seem as stiff as you're used to, that's okay. They bake up very nice with a little puff. Five stars - a definite keeper; tasty and quick to make.

Ingredients
1-3/4 cups oat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
-----
1 TB ground flaxseeds
1/4 cup soy milk
-----
1/4 cup organic brown sugar
1/4 cup organic granulated white sugar
1/3 cup canola or walnut oil
1 tsp vanilla
-----
3/4 semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Sift together the oat flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In small bowl whisk together the flaxseeds and soy milk. Add the sugars and stir. Add the oil and vanilla and mix by hand for about 1 minute until emulsified.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, stir to mix and fold in chocolate chips. Drop onto cookie sheet (I like to line it with parchment paper) and bake for about 10 minutes until lightly browned. Cool for 5 minutes and put and cooling rack. Makes 18-24 cookies.

Uber Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

The book "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar" have a version of this recipe that is quite good but I cannot leave well enough alone - got to make it healthier, less sweet, etc. This recipe makes about 2-1/2 dozen cookies.

Ingredients
2 cups quick cooking oatmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup white whole wheat flour
2/3 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
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1-1/4 to 1-1/2 cup sugar*
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
2/3 cup soy, rice, or almond milk
2/3 cup walnut oil
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract
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3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 and line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix together the first seven (dry) ingredients.

In a large bowl, beat together sugar, flax, and milk until smooth. Add oil and both extracts and beat until well mixed. Fold in half the flour mixture and stir until moist; add the rest of flour mixture and mix until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop a generous tablespoon on to cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes until firm. Let sit for a few minutes before transferring to wire rack. Store in tightly covered container.

*Use smaller amount of sugar if you like your cookies less sweet.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - vegan style!

I really get off on making cookies. It's a quick treat that always pleases no matter how weird the recipe. And believe me, there are a few strange recipes out there. In accordance with my cook book addiction, a new addition for my collection is "More great good dairy-free desserts - Naturally." It's by Fran Costigan. I made my first recipe today for Chocolate Chip Cookies. These are actually quite adult, thin, and slightly gooey from the chocolate chips, and ever so tasty! It didn't make very many cookies and I was surprised at how little flour was used. The only substitutions I made was white whole wheat flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour, walnut oil instead of canola, and chocolate extract instead of almond extract. I just don't care for almond extract. But if you're not quite the chocolate hound I am, go for the almond extract!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
7 tablespoons light natural cane sugar plus a bit extra for rolling dough in
1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup unbleached white flour
2 tablespoons arrowroot
1 tablespoon dark whole cane sugar
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
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1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons walnut oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon soymilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract
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1/3 heaping cup of dark chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together and whisk to mix. In small bowl, mix together wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until smooth. Mix in chocolate chips (use your hands, it's easier).

Sprinkle a piece of plastic wrap with 1 tablespoon or so of sugar and place dough on top, form into log, using plastic to help form the log. Pinch off a small 1-inch piece, roll in sugar in desired, and flatten a bit on cookie sheet.
Bake for 7 to 8 minutes. My cookies were on the small side so 7 minutes worked out fine.