This post was edited on May 7th, 2009. The recipe has been altered slightly for quality.
I like cookies. A lot. I mean, seriously, a whole lot. Remember how, as a child, you would say how much you loved something and someone would say "why don't you marry it then"? Well, I would marry cookies.
Aside from glancing at a few favourite recipes to remind myself of basic baking necessities (like flour - yeah, I'm dingy), my number one method of recipe concocting came into play here. It's a deep and distant family secret, but I shall share anyway:
Gotta use stuff up.
Browsing through the fridge I encountered many a green vegetable on its last leg, but in the end decided on an already-open bag of dried cranberries and a container of oatmeal that hasn't been touched in weeks (come on, a cranberry oatmeal cookie versus kale and courgette cookies... what would you choose).
Recipe Notes
In case anyone's curious as to why someone would only want to make less than a dozen cookies, it's because I'm a sugar fiend. These aren't the sweetest of sweet when it comes to cookies, but I will still devour them Cookie Monster style.
If you're not keen on dried cranberries, feel free to try any other dried fruit. Nuts would also be good, and the addition of chocolate chips ups the luxurious factor (because, come on, sadly no one sees oatmeal as luxurious these days. A real shame).
These vegan treats are almost like mini cakes, and are a lovely afternoon snack with a cup of your favourite hot bevvie!
Vegan Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
- Directions/Method
- Preheat the oven to 175 C (350 F) and lightly grease a baking sheet.
- Whisk the water and ground flax to a gelatinous consistency (flax egg). A nut/coffee mill works well for this.
- Whip the margarine and brown sugar until creamy and mostly blended. Add the maple syrup plus the flax egg and mix again.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into the above mix, along with the cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix until just combined.
- Fold in the cranberries and oatmeal (plus chocolate chips or nuts, if using).
- Drop heaped tablespoons of dough onto a greased baking sheet, at least an inch apart. Flatten slightly and bake for about 12 minutes (a little less for a fan/convection oven). Remove and cool on a wire rack. The cookies may seem very soft still when you remove them from the oven, but once cooled the consistency will toughen up a bit.