I mentioned last night that I was making cookies. What I did not mention is how delicious (and nutritious) these trail mix cookies are! I wanted to put them in their own post because I didn’t feel like glossing over their magnificence.
These cookies are REALLY good. I got the recipe from Angela at ohsheglows.com (of course). Everything I have made from that website has turned out deliciously. I had my eye on this recipe for some time, but was waiting until I got my smaller Vitamix container to make the oat flour. I had all the other ingredients staring at me whenever I opened the pantry.
Last night was the night. It was cold outside, my head was stuffed up, and the thought of baking delicious cookies to enjoy with a cup of tea was too tempting to resist.
I also learned an important lesson the other day when I went to the store. I can’t even call it a blonde moment since I am not blonde, so let’s just call it a moment of clarity. For those of you who may not have come to this realization yet, parchment paper is not the same as wax paper.
I don’t know why I just assumed they were. They’re not at all. I would read recipes that called for me to line the sheet with parchment paper and think “oh yeah, wax paper. I have that.” I would then wind up with a baking sheet with melted wax paper that I would have to scrape off. I thought I had some kind of specially coated sheet that wouldn’t allow the paper to work correctly. Nope, I just had the wrong paper.
Meet parchment paper:
Look, it even says “non-stick” right on the box. It is also spelled different from “wax.” I am just so silly. Well I can tell you now from experience that parchment paper will not melt onto your baking sheet, but wax paper will. So you probably shouldn’t use wax paper.
After that embarrassing revelation, I set out to make some cookies! These can be made gluten free by using gluten free oats and vegan by not using non-vegan dark chocolate like I did, but what I love is that there is no butter or eggs. I don’t have a problem with using eggs, but for some reason I like not using them if I don’t have to.
You can find the recipe here. I am linking back to it because I didn’t change a lot of the ingredients. I only repost the recipe if I alter it enough to make it uniquely my own. The only thing I really changed is that I used peanut butter instead of almond butter because I didn’t have enough of my homemade left. The peanut butter I used was also not very drippy as the recipe calls for, but they still turned out really good!
My 32oz Vitamix container got to make it’s first batch of flour today! The recipe calls for oat flour, so I tossed in a cup of oats and had flour within seconds! LOVE the Vitamix.
Ok I think I’ve posted enough pictures of my oat flour success. On to the cookie making. There are so many dry ingredients that I should have taken pictures in layers so you could see them all:
The wet ingredients do not look as appetizing:
Here is the brand of coconut oil that I use. I have been buying it for baking for over a year now, but you can also use it on your hair and skin with awesome results:
Wet + dry:
Since I didn’t use a very wet or drippy nut butter, the dough was a little loose. All I had to do was make sure to firmly press them into balls and they held together fine.
They didn’t spread much in the oven because, again, I didn’t use a very drippy peanut butter. These were so good that I ended up eating a few cookie’s worth of dough from the bowl. Even after that, I made 22 cookies which is a lot more than I normally get out of a cookie recipe.
Neil called on his way home and I told him there was a surprise that I wanted him to try. When he found out it was a dessert, he said “you know I don’t like desserts.” I gave him one to try one when he got home and he proceeded to pour a glass of milk, grab 3 more on a plate, and run away to devour them. If that’s not an endorsement for these cookies, I don’t know what is.
Everyone needs to go to Angela’s site and make these cookies as soon as possible. They’re so good and good for you!
Postscript: While I was making these cookies, I glanced at our wedding countdown clock that we got from a friend at our engagement party:
Eeek! One month to go!
Post-post script: Tomorrow is the last day to leave a comment for the giveaway. Stop on by and leave a comment so you can get free stuff!!
