Necessity is the mother of invention. Rather, quarantine is the mother of making do.
I’ve been quarantine baking on the reg, but sticking to two recipes: vegan banana bread and vegan vanilla cupcakes. My kids finally had it with mashing bananas and mixing them with coconut oil. So I had to bust out something new.
The boys wanted chocolate chip cookies and once again, I had to be the bearer of bad news: I didn’t have chocolate chips or any kind of chocolate in the house. But I did have a recipe for a vegan and gluten-free chocolate chip cookie – so I decided to make them without chocolate chips.
So essentially what I did was make a sugar cookie. I sub’d the flour as well. The original recipe called for almond flour, but I’m all out of almonds and haven’t been able to stock up. So I used oat flour instead. Oat flour is a cinch to make at home – just get rolled or quick cooking oats and pulse them in the blender or food processor till the whole thing turns into a dusty flour. Easy peasy.
Oat flour is also pleasantly nutty with a reasonable bite – once baked, the cookie doesn’t so much crumble as give in, chewy and dense.
For someone who didn’t have chocolate chips or almonds, I surprisingly had coconut sugar on hand (from that month when I went on an alt-sweetener bender,) and it adds a lovely caramel-y note to the cookies. It also makes the end product pretty to look at, dotting the cookies with little pops of golden brown.
These cookies are both vegan and gluten-free, so they’re kinda, sorta guilt-free as well. But given the times we’re in, I’d say it’s a-ok to make this your indulgence, if you choose.
VEGAN + GLUTEN-FREE CHEWY SUGAR COOKIES (Via Good Clean Food)
Ingredients
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
1 ¼ cups oat flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup coconut sugar
2 tablespoons coconut oil (melted)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 C
In a small bowl, whisk the flaxseed with 3 tablespoons water to create a flax egg.
Set aside till it forms a gel/egglike consistency.
Combine the oat flour, salt, baking powder and coconut sugar in a medium sized bowl.
Once the flax egg is ready, whisk in the coconut oil and vanilla extract.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until a dough forms.
Use a tablespoon to scoop out the dough.
Roll into balls and place on a baking tray with enough space between each ball.
Press down gently in the middle.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are golden brown but still soft in the
centre when touched.
Cool completely, remove from baking tray and serve.
Can store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.