Golden Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I was at One World Cafe with Erik and his mom recently. I wanted one of their jumbo oatmeal raisin cookies, but knew I couldn’t have one. Our booth was right next to the cookies. They were taunting me all through lunch, the bastards. Tempting me with their jumbo-raisiny-goodness.

When I got home I looked up a plant-based recipe and made my own friggin cookies! Thanks to straightupfood.com for having a chewy cookie to sate my oatmeal-raisiny desires!

Ingredients:

Servings: The original recipe says 16 to 18, but it also makes very thin cookies. I like fat ones. I got 12 of roughly equal size. Don’t judge me and my fat cookies.

7 oz. dates (I used 12 Medjool dates), pitted and quartered (I tore them up using my hands. Cutting sticky dates is hard!)
1½ cups rolled oats (or use gluten-free rolled oats)
1 cup rolled oats ground into flour in a blender
2 tsp. baking powder
1 or 2 tsp. cinnamon (if you like cinnamony stuff, add 2 tsp.)
6 tbs. almond butter (see note below)
1½ tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup golden raisins
Optional: 2 oz. walnuts (~½ cup), chopped

Notes: For the almond butter, buy it raw. Don’t buy the jarred stuff that includes added salt and oils and whatnot. In Kroger I’m able to find raw almond butter on a metal rack next to the “nuts wall” by the health food section. At Kroger you won’t find the raw almond (or any nut) butter in the peanut butter & jelly aisle—you will only find it wherever the whole nuts/health food section is. The tubs are plastic and see-through, typically with a white lid. The raw stuff is more expensive, but worth it! I have a picture on my peanut noodle stirfry post showing one of the raw nut-butter tubs from Kroger in the top left.

Directions:

Cover the date pieces in warm water and allow them to sit for 15 minutes to soften.

Preheat the oven to 350° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. I recommend using an air-bake sheet for even cooking. A silicone baking mat can replace the parchment paper!

If you have not already, add the cup of rolled oats to a blender and keep it going until it’s turned into oat flour.

OMG I MADE OAT FLOUR FROM OATS IN A BLENDER THIS IS LIKE MAGIC

Measure all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and use a fork to thoroughly whisk it all together. Or use an actual whisk, but you’ll want the fork soon anyway.

Place the almond butter and vanilla extract in a blender. After 15 minutes of soaking, measure out 2 tbs. of the dates’ soaking water and add it to the blender. Drain the rest of the water from the dates and add the dates to the blender with the almond butter, vanilla extract, and the 2 tbs. of date water. Blend until smooth.

Spoon the blended date mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients.

Smash it all together thoroughly with your fork. The dough will be very thick. Mix until you feel like your wrist is going to fall off.

Got it all mixed? Great. Time to throw in the ½ cup of golden raisins (& walnuts if using) and MIX SOME MORE. The cookies don’t care how much pain they cause you, they only know how to be delicious.

F-ing raisins are mixed in and everything below my elbow feels broken

The original recipe recommends using a cookie scoop. I just scooped out small chunks and rolled them into balls, then smooshed them down a little with my palm on the cookie sheet. Make the cookies however you want, just get the dough onto the baking sheet in blobs that semi-resemble cookies.

Note that these cookies will not spread out during baking. They will cook exactly as you put them in, so if you want a perfectly round cookie that’s fine, but if you want the appearance of a “regular” cookie you need to smash down the tops a bit. Press a few raisins into the tops of the cookie if you like, but I thought they were good without adding the extra raisins.

Bake for 13 minutes. Remove from the oven and after it cools slightly (5 minutes or so) transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. These are very good both warm and cooled!