Breakfast Cookies

Somewhere between a cookie and a muffin, these nutritious treats are sure to keep you full and give you energy to start your day. Subtle hints of spices are enough to make these cookies interesting, and I suppose the dried blueberries and chocolate chips may also be factor. Make them the night before, for a quick easy grab and go breakfast for those busy weekdays mornings.

In my first few weeks of University, I remember going to a chemistry tutorial. Not knowing anyone in the room, I quickly glanced around trying to decide where to sit. From the entrance I spotted a girl sitting on her own, with a cooking magazine in hand… and I knew immediately we would be friends. Little did I know at the time, my new-found friend would introduce me to a world of food that I knew nothing about. She was a vegan, something I had never heard of and over the years studying, cooking and eating together I started learning to cook without animal products. Introducing me to many new recipes, these breakfast cookies were definitely among my favourite, because honestly who wouldn’t want to eat a cookie for breakfast. The original recipes is appropriately named “Spicy oatmeal raisin cookies” on account of the many spices. I found them to be slightly overwhelming, so I decreased the amounts to better suit my palate, resulting in a nice balance of flavours.

Now I don’t want to confuse you, I am not a vegan, and I do not intend on becoming a vegan, but I do enjoy integrating some of the vegan concepts into my cooking. Although I have not given up animal products entirely, I do believe that the typical North American diet is much too animal heavy, not to mention the dire state of the conventional and industrial farms is mind-boggling and disturbing. Therefore when I do choose to consume these products I buy directly from farms (knowing the farmer), organically certified in grocery stores (which requires meeting certain standards) or from small-scale butchers who know their farmers (more on this way of eating in a later post).

Breakfast Cookies
Adapted from the How It All Vegan cookbook
Makes 9 large cookies

Ingredients

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• pinch nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/3 tsp. ground cumin
• pinch black pepper
• few pinches cayenne
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1/2 cup cane sugar
• 2 Tbsp. oil (whatever you have on hand should be fine)
• 1 cup milk/milk alternative
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1/2 cup dried blueberries (or raisins or your favourite dried fruit)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F.

In a large bowl mix oats, flour, salt, baking soda and spices together.

Add vinegar to milk. Stir banana, sugar, oil and vinegar milk into the flour and combine until just mixed. Scoop onto parchment lined baking tray (I use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to portion out my cookies), flatten into a disc about 1 inch thick.

Bake for 18-20 minutes (cooking time should be reduced for smaller cookies). Remove from oven let cook on baking tray for a few minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.