Tweaked recipe for Eggless Oatmeal Cookies

Tomorrow is the start of Our Real Food Challenge.  For some this will be a walk in the park.  For others it will be a challenging experience.  Doc wasn't feeling all that well yesterday so I thought I'd make his favorite Oatmeal Raisin cookies (with a healthy tweak).

BUT...We were out of eggs AND raisins!!!  What!?!  So a quick search of the web and I scored several great recipes which I kinda mixed and matched to make a brand new creation.
The BEST part...It's kinda healthy!  BONUS...They're Vegan!

Doc's Tweaked Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup organic apple sauce

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
11/2 cups unbleached, organic flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup boiling water
2 cups rolled oats

1/3 cup unsweetened coco powder

½ cup coconut flakes
½ cup almond slivers
cinnamon

Directions:

Melt coconut oil and add in apple sauce. Add brown sugar and mix thoroughly. Add vanilla, flour, coco powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and blend into sugar mixture. Stir in rolled oats, coconut flakes and almonds. Roll into balls and flatten with fork on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Our 7-Day Real Food Challenge begins tomorrow... July 21st!
At the moment we are ?? bloggers participating in this challenge:
Joyce @ It's Your Life 
Lydia @ Lydia's Flexitarian Kitchen  
Maureen @ It's All Connected
Melinda @ Auntie Em's Guide    
Courtney @ The Crunchy Deliquent  
Kristina @ Mother's Niche   
Taylor @ Mama has Pink Hair 
April @ WhyTheSimpleLife 
and me...Mary @ Mary's Kitchen and Back to the Basics 

*If I missed anyone PLEASE let me know*   I'm trying to keep up with all of the emails! 

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Follow along...

Our 7-Day Real Food Challenge

Details and Recipes: 7-Day Real Food Challenge

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Sharing this informative post HERE.

The Easiest Sugar Cookies (from scratch)

These little guys may not be the healthiest but they're definitely easy to make!  I substituted half of the butter for apple sauce but next time I'll try all apple sauce and whole wheat flour.

Easiest Sugar Cookies
adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
2 3/4 unbleached, organic flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup apple sauce, unsweetened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon homemade vanilla extract

Frosting: Marshmallow Creme (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

To be totally honest, I put all of the ingredients into 1 bowl and mixed thoroughly.  The cookies turned out great and I didn't have to dirty more dishes.  These cookies are delicious plain or with marshmallow creme.  I thought about adding unsweetened cocoa to the marshmallow creme...Maybe next time!

Cowboy Cookies for my Texan

No, my husband is not a cowboy but he did grow up in Texas.  I found this recipe for Cowboy Cookies and they are similar to my  Vanishing Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.  {Deliciousness}  But I substitute Apple Sauce and Coconut Oil for the butter.  Also, if you substitute regular apple sauce you might want to cut out a bit of sugar.

We have a joke in our house these days.  My husband calls his old blue jeans his "Apocalypse Pants" because unless there's an Apocalypse, he won't fit into them!  LOL  But seriously, I love to cook and he loves to eat so we'll both just deal with it (and work out more).

Cowboy Cookies
from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks butter (6 ounces, 12 Tbsp), at room temperature

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 large eggs*, beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut (we used shredded)

1 cup chopped pecans

*This recipe is a half recipe of the original, which calls for 3 eggs. To get half of 3 eggs, you can either just use only one egg, or beat two eggs and remove about 2 Tbsp.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F with racks in upper and lower third. Line two large baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper.

In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

Place butter in a standing electric mixer and beat on medium speed until smooth and light, about 1 minute. Slowly add in the white sugar and brown sugar, and beat to combine, about 2 more minutes.  Add half the eggs, beat, and then add the other half and beat again. Add the vanilla extract and beat again.

Lower the speed of the mixer to low and slowly add the flour mixture, until just combined. Add the chocolate chips, oats, coconut, and pecans, mixing until just combined.

If you want large cookies, drop about 1/4 cup lumps of the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, separated by 3 inches to allow for enough room for the cookies to spread as they cook. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes, then rotate the cookie sheets front to back and top to bottom, and bake for an additional 7 to 9 minutes. For smaller cookies, use about 2 Tbsp of the cookie dough per cookie and cook for 13 to 16 minutes, rotating half way.

Note that if you are using a dark baking sheet, it will absorb more heat, and you won't need as much baking time. Also, the top rack will bake more quickly because heat rises. 

Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes.  Then remove the cookies to a rack to cool completely.

Nutella Thumbprints

Another delicious Emily creation!

Nutella Thumbprints

picture from Emily Bites

by Emily Bites

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup Nutella hazelnut-chocolate spread

Directions:
1.    Preheat the oven to 350
2.    Spoon flour into a measuring cup and level the top with a knife to create exactly 1 cup of unpacked flour. In a large bowl, combine flour with powdered sugar, salt and cocoa, stirring until mixed. In a separate large bowl, place the stick of butter and beat it with a hand mixer at a medium speed until fluffy (about 1-2 minutes). Stir the egg yolks together in a small cup with a whisk and when combined, add them along with the vanilla to the butter and beat with mixer until combines. Add flour mixture to bowl and beat together on a low speed for several minutes until dough combines and thickens.
3.    Place the dough onto a sheet of wax paper and knead it several times until smooth. Breaking pieces off the dough, form 28 balls (about 1 inch each). Line a large baking sheet (or 2 if necessary) with parchment paper and place the balls in rows one inch apart on the paper. In the center of each cookie, press your thumb about halfway through the ball to create an indentation. Bake cookies for 10 minutes and remove from oven. 

Place cookies on wire racks and let them cool completely. Once cooled, spread about ½ teaspoon of Nutella into the indented center of each cookie.

Yields 28 cookies.

These cookies were delicious!!!  I couldn't take a picture that really did them justice so I used Emily's.  It's very easy to make these with a bit less fat by substituting Apple Sauce for butter.


Enjoy!

Mary's Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies

Originally posted at Back to the Basics!

This is one of my favorite recipes.  The original recipe came from the Quaker Oats container.  My mom made the original recipe quite often when we were kids.  I put my own healthy spin on the original.  I have substituted apple sauce for butter and cut back on the sugar.  In addition, I use almond slivers and/or coconut flakes.

Mary's Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies

makes about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup organic apple sauce (no sugar added)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3 cups Quaker Oats (old-fashion, uncooked)
1 1/4 cup raisins
*omitted* 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Extras:  1/4 cup almond slivers and/or 1/4 cup coconut flakes

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 F.  Beat together apples sauce and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.

Add combined flour, baking soda and cinnamon.  Mix well.  Stir in oats and raisins (and almond slivers/coconut flakes).  Mix well.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased (I use Pam) cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet if you can wait that long.  Remove to wire rack if there are any left.