I wanted to call these “Holy-Crap-They-Worked! Cookies” but it wasn’t too catchy. So the safe, explanatory “Vegan Blueberry & Raisin Oatmeal Cookies” it was.
I had the sudden urge to make oatmeal raisin cookies today. I have made them before but I wanted to try a vegan version, as vegan baking has become a slight obsession of mine. However, when searching online for recipes, they all contained ingredients like flaxseed and coconut oil and spelt flour, none of which I had to hand. I normally find it quite easy adapting recipes by substituting one or two ingredients but it just wasn’t happening for me this time, so I decided to wing it and make up a recipe as I went along. I also had half a punnet of blueberries that I thought may make a nice addition to the cookies… even though I’ve never seen berries in cookies. Oh, and did I mention that I went for sugar-free?
Sounds foolproof, right?
Ahem…
So I roughly based the amounts of wet-dry ingredients on several different recipes I found online and although my batter turned out a little wetter than I would have liked, they cookies still came out of the oven okay! I added slightly more flour to the second batch to go into the oven and these were slightly better. So next time I would increase the flour slightly (I have done so in the recipe below).
Their consistency is slightly weird – they are chewy cookies but quite soft and fat, verging on a muffin-like texture. But hey, they taste amazing and that’s what counts, right?
Now, I’m no nutritionist but given the fact that these are (added) sugar-free, dairy-free, oil-free and fruity, I’m going to hazard a guess that they’re fairly healthy. I reckon you may just be able to get away with having these for breakfast…
Vegan Blueberry & Raisin Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 22-25 cookies
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups raisins
1 1/2 cups plain flour
2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarb soda
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup agave nectar
250ml Bramley apple sauce
3 tbsp apple juice
1/4 cup fresh blueberries
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Spray or line large baking tray. Put raisins into small bowl and cover with warm water to soak. (This will plump the raisins and stop them from burning.)
2. Sift flour into large bowl and stir in oats. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until combined.
3. Add wet ingredients and stir well until combined. Drain raisins and fold into mixture with blueberries.
4. Use tablespoon to scoop mixture onto baking tray, around 1 inch apart and flatten slightly. Bake in oven for 12-16 minutes until golden. Let rest on baking tray for 5 minutes then transfer onto cooking rack to cool completely.
Enjoy!
what a creative combination of ingredients! i love this. organic blueberries are on sale right now so there are a ton sitting in my fridge… can’t wait to try this : )
Hope you like them! They’re so squishy and sweet. I only put 1/4 cup of blueberries in because that’s all I had but they were so good that I’d probably recommend going half/half with the raisins. 🙂
I think you should start working on your packaging now. You have something here that the masses would LOVE!
Haha thanks! I think that’s my favourite comment I’ve ever received. 😀
Yay for sugar free! Def going to try these little sis! Xx
Please do, big sis! They were surprisingly good!
These sound wonderful! But what exactly is agave nectar? I haven’t seen this in the States. Could orange juice be used instead?
Agave nectar is a plant-based sweetener. It has a similar consistency and taste to honey but is a little runnier and probably a little sweeter.
It works partly as a binder in this recipe, so I don’t think orange juice would work as well. You could use maple or golden syrup instead or if the recipe doesn’t need to be vegan, you could use honey (probably the closest substitute).
I know from reading other blogs that you can get agave nectar/syrup from Trader Joe’s in the US and imagine you can get it at most health food stores. Not sure about supermarkets but it’s sold in the bigger stores here in the UK.
Hope this helps! 🙂