In light of declaring love for the Cookie Monster, I must share this new discovery for a vegan oatmeal cookie (Cookie Monster’s second favourite cookie after chocolate chip). These cookies are made with unprocessed, whole foods and are delicious enough to feed the cookie monster inside any one of us. Oats are naturally a gluten free food, but may come into contact with gluten during processing. Purchase gluten free oats (they are more expensive) if you have that degree of sensitivity. I tend to have Bob’s organic rolled oats in my kitchen most of the time.
I ordered the Oh She Glows cookbook on the based on the inspiring appeal of this oatmeal cookie recipe http://ohsheglows.com/2014/01/17/banana-bread-muffin-tops/. I made them right away, repeated the tasty success several times over, so here is my adaptation of the recipe:
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup pitted dates, packed (soak dry dates, and a mixture of medjool and other pitted dates is nice)
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 cups rolled oats, separated into 1.5 and 0.5 cups
1 tablespoon shredded coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional, freshly grated is best)
1/4 cup currants
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, mix together dates, bananas, and coconut oil to a fairly smooth consistency. Add 1.5 cups of oats, shredded coconut, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, pulse until oats are ground. Power off food processor and remove the blade. Stir in remaining 0.5 cups of oats and currants into the bowl of the food processor. Spoon batter onto a baking sheet and flatten slightly with a spatula. Bake for 12 minutes, remove and rotate tray, bake for 12 more minutes or until the desired level of browning is achieved. Makes 12-16 cookies.
Enjoy fresh or within 2-3 days or freeze for a week in an airtight container.
Enjoy vegan banana oatmeal cookies warm off the baking sheet to indulge your cookie monster-
