The perfect breakfast cookie!
I love oatmeal cookies. They’re delicious and they feel like they’re kind of healthy too, especially the way I make them. I make lots of different types of oatmeal cookies. I have a basic recipe that I use as a starter and then I adapt it depending on what I feel like eating and what I have in the house. One of my favorites is chocolate almond, but I didn’t have any chocolate last night, so I decided to do oatmeal raisin instead. We also had walnuts left over from some cookies I made last week, so I decided to use those too. And, since I didn’t start baking until pretty late last night, oatmeal raisin walnut cookies seemed like a good idea because they are kind of the perfect breakfast cookie. In fact, I’m eating some right now with a cup of decaf English breakfast tea with almond milk – mmm…
The basic recipe for these oatmeal cookies is as follows:
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda (a very versatile household product)
3/4 cup softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
3 cups rolled oats
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. With a mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until combined. Add the oats and mix until combined. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough onto cookie sheets and bake for 12 minutes.
From this recipe, you can add, replace or substitute whatever you like. We follow a pretty vegan diet in our house, so we don’t use butter or eggs. I do an almost straight substitute of margarine for butter – using just a tiny bit less than 3/4 cup – and I use egg replacer and water – 1 tablespoon replacer to 3 tablespoons water – for the egg. I also replace a quarter cup of the brown sugar with honey and am a bit more generous with the vanilla – letting is spill over the measuring spoon a bit as I pour it in.
Whisk together dry flour, salt and baking soda. Cream butter, sugar, vanilla and egg.
My adaptation of this recipe for these oatmeal raisin walnut cookies with flax meal is as follows:
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup ground roasted flax seed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup (minus about a tablespoon) softened margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon (plus a tiny bit more) vanilla
1 tablespoon egg replacer
3 tablespoons water
2 cups rolled oats
1 tablespoon beer
1 handful (about 1 cup) raisins
1 handful (about 1 cup) chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, flax meal, and cinnamon. With a mixer, cream together the margarine, brown sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla. In a ramekin or cup, whisk together the egg replacer and water – mix in with butter mixture. Add the flour mixture to butter mixture and mix until combined. Add the oats and mix until combined. Add the beer and mix until combined. Add the raisins and walnuts and mix until combined. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough onto cookie sheets and bake for 12 minutes.
That’s the recipe. The secret is the beer and maple syrup – their alternative sweetness enhances the taste – while the cinnamon and roasted flax meal gives the cookies warmth. Honestly, eating these for breakfast will feel just like having a nice, hearty bowl of oatmeal.
How to make fresh roasted flax meal
Roasted flax – fresh from the oven.
A few tricks for making quick work in the kitchen while baking these cookies include roasting the flax seeds and softening the margarine in the preheating oven. As soon as you set your oven to preheat, grab some raw flax seeds and spread them out on a cookie sheet. Place them in the oven. Measure out your margarine into a ramekin and place it in the oven too. Set a timer and check your flax seeds margarine every 3 minutes. It should take 3-6 minutes for the margarine to soften and about 6-9 minutes for the flax to roast. If you hear or see the flax popping, you’ll know it’s ready. The seeds should go from a light to a darker brown color. When your margarine is softened – some of it may melt and the rest may still be solid, that’s ok – transfer it to your mixer and mix until it’s all the same consistency. When you seeds are roasted, transfer them to a food processor – I use the Magic Bullet my sister gave me – and grind them into flax meal.
Roasting flax seeds and softening margarine while preheating oven.
Flax seeds about to get ground into flax meal.
Freshly ground roasted flax meal.
One last tip – small utensils
Big whisk compared to little whisk
In our kitchen, we have a small whisk that came in a set of other small baking and cooking utensils. I think they were designed to be used by children – and my children do use them – but they are also incredibly useful for me. I especially like the small whisk because I often have to whisk together a small amount of ingredients in a small bowl and the large whisk just spills everything out over the top of the bowl. The small spatula is also very useful when making delicate cookies and candy because it gives you more precision in removing them from the baking tray.
I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do. Please go ahead and experiment with the recipe and share your favorite adaptations here in the comments or even on my Facebook page or onTwitter – my handle is @femhacktweets.