Week 1 Vegan MOFO Treat! (Psst-- they're cookies) #7

After a week of healthy eating, I needed a little treat.  A sweet, slighty not-good-for-you treat.  Dammit, I needed some cookies.  While not good for your body, cookies are definitely good for your soul!  This recipe was adapted slightly from Robin Robertson's Maple-Walnut Oatmeal Cookies (pg 430 of 1000 Vegan Recipes).  These don't have any raisins, but I think they would be pretty tasty.  Actually, you could probably add some dried cherries or cranberries instead of raisins, if you wanted.  Enough talk, on to the cookies!

This recipe makes 1 dozen cookies.  Just double or triple if you want more.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup old-fashion oats (also called rolled oats)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I toasted mine slightly in a skillet before adding to the cookies-gives lots of extra flavor)
• 1/4 cup plus 1 TB cup Earth Balance or other vegan butter
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 TB sugar (I used 1 TB brown, 1 TB white)
• 1 tsp plus a few extra drops vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together flower, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, oats and walnuts.
4. Melt your butter, then stir in the syrup, sugar, vanilla.  Mix well.  I melted my butter in a microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds.  Then added the other ingredients into that bowl.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, stirring gently until there are no dry spots.  If you wanted to add in some raisins or other dried fruit, now would be a good time to fold them in.
6. Using a small scoop or tablespoon, drop the cookies onto your cookie sheet.  Cook on the middle rack for approximately 12 minutes.  You want to pull them out when the bottom edges are lightly browned.  Let cool 5 minutes on a rack.  Enjoy :)