Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Oatmeal cookies usually lean on butter, brown sugar, and an egg. Here the fat comes from almond flour and walnuts, the sweetness from dates, banana, and raisins, and the binding from a flax egg, one tablespoon of ground flaxseed stirred into water until it sets to a gel. Ground oats stand in for the flour, so the whole grain stays intact and you grind it yourself. There is no leavening, so these bake dense and chewy, closer to a soft breakfast cookie than an airy bakery one. Ripe bananas do a lot of the work: the browner the peel, the sweeter the cookie, and the less you notice there is no sugar.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups Rolled oats, 1 cup blended to a flour, the rest left whole
- 1 cup Almond flour
- 8 Medjool dates, pitted, soaked 10 minutes in hot water
- 1 Banana, very ripe, mashed
- 1 tbsp Ground flaxseed, for the flax egg
- 1/2 cup Raisins
- 1/2 cup Walnuts, chopped
- 1 tsp cassia cinnamon
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a sheet with parchment. Stir the ground flaxseed into 3 tbsp (45 ml) water and set it aside. In about 10 minutes it thickens to a gel that binds the cookie the way an egg would.
- Drain the soaked dates, keeping 2 tbsp of their soaking water. Blend the dates, banana, and reserved water into a smooth paste. Run it until no banana lumps remain, since lumps bake into gummy spots.
- Blend 1 cup (90 g) of the rolled oats to a fine powder. That is your oat flour, whole grain, just ground at home. Leave the remaining 1½ cups (135 g) oats whole for chew.
- Scrape the date paste into a bowl and stir in the flax gel. Add the ground oats, almond flour, whole oats, and cinnamon. Fold until no dry patches remain, then fold in the raisins and walnuts. The dough is thick and sticky, which is right.
- Rest the dough 10 minutes so the oats drink up the moisture. There is no gluten here to toughen, so the rest is only about hydration, and the dough firms just enough to scoop.
- Scoop 18 mounds, about 2 tbsp each, and press each one flat. They hold their shape and barely spread, so form them the way you want them to look.
- Bake 15 to 17 minutes, until the edges set and the bottoms brown. With no egg and no gluten they are fragile straight from the oven, so let them cool on the sheet for 5 minutes to firm up before you move them.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 296 calories, 8 g protein, 6 g fiber, 2 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
