OLD FASHIONED OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES
I love these cookies. They have the perfect amount of sweetness from the applesauce, molasses, and raisins. After eating a few and sharing with my neighbors, I put the extras in the freezer thinking I would save them for when my children came to visit. Well, I could not resist their deliciousness and ate them all over the next 3 days!
This is yet another winning recipe from the mother-daughter dynamic duo at “Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures” recipe blog. All of their recipes are already whole food, plant-based with no oil so check out their web site for more recipes.
Read this brief article from “The Spruce Eats” about different varieties of molasses and the difference between sulphured vs unsulphured: What Is Molasses?
Here is Dr. Greger’s 4 minute video describing various sweeteners and whether any have nutritional value. Molasses came in 2nd place which isn’t so shabby: The Healthiest Sweetener
This recipe calls for almond butter. Do you want to understand the environmental impact of almonds? Read this excellent article (may take about 8 minutes to read) by Ocean Robbins of the “Food Revolution Network”: Are Almonds Sustainable?
OLD FASHIONED OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES
Ingredients
2 cups rolled oats, divided
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup almond flour
9 Medjool dates, pitted
1/2 cup organic, unsweetened almond butter
1/3 cup organic, unsweetened applesauce
1 Tablespoon molasses (I use unsulphured)
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
Optional: ½ cup vegan dark chocolate chips but I suggest not adding these so you can experience the good old-fashioned taste
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 F with oven rack in the middle.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or with silicone baking mats. Set aside.
Place 1 cup of the rolled oats into a food processor and pulse until finely broken up, but do not turn the oats into flour. Place the processed oats into a large mixing bowl.
To the same mixing bowl add the other cup of rolled oats that is not processed. To recap, you have 1 cup of finely processed/pulsed rolled oats, and 1 cup of rolled oats now in a large mixing bowl.
To the mixing bowl with the oats add the cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda and almond flour. Mix until combined.
Now that the food processor has been emptied, add the dates to the food processor. Note: Medjool dates are very soft, if not using Medjool dates, you will need to soak the dates in hot water for 30 minutes, then discard the water and add the softened dates to the food processor.
To the food processor along with the dates add the almond butter, applesauce, molasses, and vanilla. Pulse until the dates are broken down and everything is mixed well.
Add the date mixture to the large bowl with the oat mixture. Mix well until everything is well combined.
Add the raisins (and chocolate chips if using) and mix until combined.
Take a golf balled-sized piece of cookie dough and roll it in your hands to form a ball, then place the ball onto the parchment paper/silicone mat lined cookie sheet. Either wash your hands after every 5-6 cookies or frequently scrape the palms of your hands on the side of the mixing bowl to remove dough that has stuck to it. Continue until you have rolled all the dough into balls, and placed the dough balls on the baking sheets.
Flattened each ball to form a thick disk using your hand or the bottom of a glass covered with plastic wrap. Wet the plastic wrap in between each couple of cookies to help keep it from sticking. The cookies do not spread much while baking.
Bake for 12-15 minutes. (mine were best at 12-13 minutes, 15 minutes was too long but my cookies were smaller. The recipe states it yields 18-20 cookies but I made 32 cookies)
Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately place them onto a wire cooling rack.
