oatmeal cookies
May 23, 2008
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I had no business doing what I did last night. I can' t believe I got away with it, even in part. I invented a recipe. Not just a flimflam sauté or some kind of random roast, with all sorts of impermeable root vegetables heated up with oil and salt—dishes I invent, and reinvent, every time I throw them together.
This “recipe”depended on chemistry, as any baking endeavor does. Something to sustain, something to emulsify and something to make it taste good. Therein the challenge. The oatmeal cookie recipe I was making up as I went along included no sugar, no wheat and only the fat from two egg yolks plus some ground flax. It is a challenge to bake something even remotely enjoyable without sugar, gluten or oil. A real challenge.
*I started by mixing together ½ cup each of soy flour, ground flax and spelt flour.*To that, I added 2 cups of uncooked oats.*Then, ¼ c local honey for immunity and flavor.*Plus 2 local eggs to hold things together.*I should have mixed the honey with the eggs, instead of just dribbling the honey down into the dry mass all alone. It was hard to mix in. So I added the eggs.*Then, a splash of skim milk.*Next a dash of salt, plus ¼ c dried, unsweetened cherries, dried currants and dried cranberries.*Then, some fancy pecans: ¼ cup in large chunks which I crumbled with my fingers as they tumbled into the bowl.*I also added 3 packets of Stevia for fiber and sweetness–those raw oats were smelling a bit bitter.*Coated the bottom of the pan with Olive Oil cooking spray.*
Needless to say, without oil, sugar or wheat, these oatmeal cookies went of well. They are a little bit chewy, but all the better for enjoying them longer. Nothing much changed in the oven—with so many oats, the only visible transformation was a browning on the tops, bottoms and sides. There was no spreading or rising, and these ended up quite convenient for packing and storing. A nice, moveable feast.
I' ve decided to make my oatmeal cookies weekly, using different versions of fruit and emulsifiers. Next week I' ll try a smashed banana with blueberries and walnuts. Or maybe I' ll use applesauce instead of eggs to keep the heap of oats intact. I' m also pondering dark chocolate chunks, shredded coconut and blackberries—dusted with spelt flour to keep them from bleeding fuchsia juice into the dough. Salted cashews, dried apricots and figs are also high on the list of bake-ins.
