First Day of Summer

Today is the first day of summer.  Can you believe it?  A year ago I still lived in New York.   A year ago I was still single, preparing for my wedding.  Seriously, where does the time go?  This weekend I had some incredible urgings to have chocolate and coconut.  I mean, I am really hard pressed to think of a better food combination.  They I got to thinking about my delicious dough balls that were not the brightest idea to try.  I cannot get them out of my head. 

Somehow I logically thought that a blend of dough balls and coconut and chocolate would make the situation better. I blame Mr. J because he spent the better half of Saturday golfing.  Whenever he goes golfing I end up in the kitchen.  So there blame Mr. J.

I took the Oatmeal Carrot Cookie recipe and made a few minor adjustments.  The end result is heavenly.  They are vegan so snacking on the dough is perfectly acceptable safe.

Vegan Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients:

1 cup oat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup chocolate chunks
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup unrefined (fragrant) coconut oil, warmed until just melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and oats. Add the nuts, coconut, and chocolate. In a separate smaller bowl use a whisk to combine the agave nectar and coconut oil. Add this to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.


Eat a bit of the dough for quality control.

Drop onto prepared baking sheets, one level tablespoonful at a time, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Bake in the top 1/3 of the oven for 10 - 12 minutes or until the cookies are golden on top and bottom.

My chocolate chunks were a bit too big for the recipe.  It was hard to form solid balls and some of the cookie exploded a bit when baking.  We cannot all be perfect right?

It is OK though.  I ate destroyed the evidence before anyone noticed.  

Craving Carrots

Happy Monday!  I wish you a great start to the week.  In case you need a bit of help with this, I have, for you, a delicious, easy, healthy cookie recipe.

A few weeks ago another food obsessed co-worker, Gina, sent me a cookie recipe and said it was a must try.  We have very similar taste in food and basically anything she recommends I know I will end up loving. She is also very healthy so there is no worrying about my figure widening like some of my other want to try recipes.  These cookies have a few different ingredients that I don't regularly have in the pantry, mainly coconut oil.  Thus, it took a little effort before I could make them. It was well worth it though.  These are great cookies, and a healthy snack.

Carrot Oatmeal Cookies
From 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour ( I used regular whole wheat flour.)

1 teaspoon baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup real maple syrup, room temperature
1/2 cup unrefined (fragrant) coconut oil, warmed until just melted
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and oats. Add the nuts and carrots. In a separate smaller bowl use a whisk to combine the maple syrup, coconut oil, and ginger. Add this to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Drop onto prepared baking sheets, one level tablespoonful at a time, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Bake in the top 1/3 of the oven for 10 - 12 minutes or until the cookies are golden on top and bottom.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies. 

So did you notice there there is no animal products or sugar in these cookies?  I guess that means they are vegan.  I didn't realize the sugar part until after I had mixed them all together.  These cookies are moist, chewy, and sweet enough for my taste.  There mini size means you can have 2 4 at a time. 

They are very, very easy to put together.  The longest part is shredding the carrots and as you can see I had a little help.  I am still waiting for Mr. J to taste them but I am pretty sure they will be a success.  They already are in my mind.