Cookie Friday: Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

 
We have a tradition of making cookies on Fridays.  It started when my kids were little and often wanted cookies.  I had the idea that we would cook a batch of homemade cookies every Friday.  When they were gone, no more cookies until the next Friday.


They have since figured out that cookies can be made on other days of the week, that cookies can be bought at the store, and that they would like to have cookies more.  Even so, the tradition of Cookie Friday has continued.  Occasionally, we buy cookies, or make some other sweet, or use prepared cookie dough.  However, we usually make some sort of cookies on Fridays.

We also eat pizza on Friday nights, so I'm not terribly likely to be making a lot of bean or rice recipes for Friday dinner.  Put those two things together and it seems sensible that I will be making bean (or maybe rice) cookies and sweets on Fridays.

After the smashing success of last week's Box Mix Black Bean Brownies, I was looking forward to trying a new recipe this week.  After looking at quite a few, I decided to base my recipe on the Fat-Free Vegan Butter Bean Cookies recipe at Happy Herbivore.  (Yikes, I just realized that these are fat free.  How is that even possible?)

Start by preparing a baking sheet, either by spraying with non-stick spray or lining it with parchment paper.  I am totally in love with parchment paper, so that is what I used.

Put one cup of old-fashioned oats/oatmeal into the food processor.  Pulse about 15 times, until it is pretty small but not dust.

It should look sort of like this.  Transfer the oats to a large bowl.

Measure out a cup of flour and add to the oats in the bowl.

Add one teaspoon of baking soda, one teaspoon of baking powder, and one-quarter teaspoon of cinnamon.

Mix thoroughly.  I like to use a whisk because I think it gets things incorporated really well without using a sifter.

Remember that you wanted these to be double chocolate cookies and add one quarter cup of unsweetened cocoa powder.

Mix again.  Set this aside while you move to the wet ingredients.

Start by draining your beans and catching the liquid that comes out of the can.

There isn't much, and it looks sort of icky.  Resist the urge to throw it out.

Go back to the food processor with the things you'll need for the wet ingredient mix.

Place the beans plus one tablespoon of the bean liquid in the food processor.  Try to puree.  If it is too dry, add the vanilla and applesauce now.

This mixture is very wet.  It kept flicking out at me through the little holes on the top of the mixer bowl.  (The blue box is the transformer so I don't blow up my beloved blender/food processor.)

Add the sugar and beat again until the sugar is invisible.

This mixture tastes so good that I could eat it just like it was.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients.  Begin mixing well.

Add the chocolate chips and keep mixing.  I use mini chocolate chips because I like the way that they fill the whole cookie with chocolate.

Add in the remaining bean liquid until the batter reaches a good consistency.  Add a little extra water if necessary.

Scoop out the dough onto the cookie sheet.  Place into 350 degree oven for 12ish minutes.

This is what the cookie looked like after 10 minutes.  It still looks a little moist at this point.

In the interest of science, I pulled it apart from top to bottom to see if it was done.  It didn't seem quite done but it was yummy.  I cooked it for another 2 minutes and then took them out.

This plate was empty approximately three minutes later.  I was the only one home.


The Verdict

I'm pretty sure I can say that these were a hit.  I ate quite a few myself, then I packed up most of the rest for after school snack.  Kids were fighting over the last cookie.

The kids did speculate about the secret ingredients.  Lots of people suspected that there were raisins in the cookies, and I could sort of taste them, too.  Crazy, huh?  One child insisted that she could taste the rice in the cookies.  None of their guesses stopped them from eating the cookies, though.

I will absolutely make these again.  I would like to experiment to see if I can flatten them more (they didn't spread much at all.)  I also think you could add a lot more beans without messing with the cookies at all.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies, makes 24


one cup old-fashioned oats
one cup flour
one teaspoon baking powder
one teaspoon baking soda
dash salt
quarter teaspoon cinnamon
quarter cup cocoa
half cup canned white beans, drained and liquid reserved

one teaspoon vanilla extract
half cup sugar
quarter cup applesauce
one cup chocolate chips

Prepare pan by oiling or lining with parchment paper.

Pulse oats in food processor about 15 pulses, until roughly chopped.


Mix oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and cocoa.  Set aside.

Place beans into food processor with one tablespoon of the reserved bean liquid.  Puree until smooth, adding applesauce, vanilla, and then sugar.

Mix wet mixture into dry ingredients.  Add chocolate chips.  Add reserved bean liquid until batter is good texture.  Add extra water if necessary.

Scoop onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees.  Time will depend on size of cookies - mine took about 12 minutes.