Mar 30, 2011

Luck of the Irish Cranberry Banana Oatmeal Cookies (Vegan!)

I feel like I’m either baking or thinking about what I’m baking next. This doesn’t seem to be a problem for anyone around me….except Lucy. My sweetheart roommate is allergic to dairy, so she can’t eat the majority of what I bake. I checked Bethenny Frankel’s website for  vegan recipes. I stumbled upon Cranberry Banana Oatmeal Cookies and immediately made them.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups oat flour
  • 3/4 cup Irish steel oats
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 cup raw sugar
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries
  • 1 tsp. canola oil
  • 1/3 cup soy milk
  • 1/2 cup banana puree (1 medium-size banana)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 375 °.
  2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
  3. Combine all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together until well combined.
  4. Use a medium-size ice cream scoop or a large spoon to scoop batter onto a cookie sheet covered with wax paper.
  5. Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through cooking, or bake until the edges of the cookies are light brown.

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The batch made 16 small cookies, at around 112 calories each. The texture if very different than your typical cookie. It’s not a bad thing, just different. I think they’re muffin-like. Bethenny has a few other recipes I’d like to try, including her Wheat-Free Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies and Boo Boo Banana Bread.

Speaking of banana bread, when I got home last night, Lucy told me that there was a brown bag at the door when she came home from the gym. Praying it wasn’t another love letter (true story), I approached the bag like it might be a bomb.IMG00644-20110329-2218

Obviously it wasn’t a bomb, or else I wouldn’t be typing this…but it was banana bread!! IMG00645-20110329-2218Joey had left a couple of slices of a recipe he made last night. This bread is ridiculous. If you’re interested in a loaf that contains enough sugar to give you diabetes in one slice but tastes like heaven, you should make this. Here is the recipe he emailed me:

“Glad you liked it. I actually just improvised with the walnuts, raisins, & blueberries, but here it is from memory.

Melt 1/3 cup butter

Combine with 3-4 mashed (ripened bananas)

Mix in 1 egg

1 tsp. Van Extract

1 tsp. Salt

1 Cup Sugar

Then, add 1.5 cups all purpose flour or whole wheat flour if you choose.

I then just added 2 oz. chopped walnuts, handful or raisins and a handful of blueberries.

Bake on 350 for an hour, and you should let it cool before you cut it. I didn’t which is why your piece wasn’t a perfect slice (impatient haha)”

I really appreciate the manly writing style of this recipe. So caveman like. “Melt this. Mix that.” Ha.

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