When I bake it involves butter, eggs, sugar, and cream. And lots of of it. Usually that is until now when I made vegan almond cranberry breakfast cookies. No eggs, butter, or sugar involved in making these cookies.
As I move into plant-based eating, I need to evolve my thoughts on baked goods. The plant-based model discourages most of the ingredients used in traditional baking in western culture. While it is easier to be creative in making veggie dinners or as I say winging it, my confidence in vegan baking didn’t exist. I started following some plant-based blogs. One was Flora & Vino where I came across their recipe for a cranberry almond breakfast cookie. Intrigued I printed it out. (Check out Flora & Vino blog and give them some love.)
Flax Egg?
The first ingredient was a flax egg. OK? A flax egg? What on earth is that? Turns out it isn’t scary. All it is flax seed ground and water whipped together then left to sit for 5 minutes to gel. It was pretty cool.
Make Your Own Flour
The ingredients for this almond cranberry breakfast cookie are pretty simple: flax egg, banana, sunflower butter, maple syrup, rolled oats, oat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, dried cranberries, and slivered almonds. My pantry is pretty well stocked. I had all of the ingredients except for oat flour. I went to the stores to find it, but no one had it. That’s when I went to the Googles and looked up how to make oat flour. Guess what? All it is is rolled oats put through a blender. That’s it so that’s what I did. I got out my trusty decades old Braun Handmixer using an attachment I had never used before: the little chopper bowl. In 15 seconds I had oat flour. I am now kicking myself for buying almond flour when I could have made my own. So live and learn.
These cookies were amazing. So tasty. I didn’t miss the eggs, butter, and cane sugar. Such a yummy treat that even got a thumb’s up by my guys those my son said they were good, but not his favorite. I’m still counting it as a win.
A great grab and go with some tea to start the day off running. For more vegan recipes.
Ingredients
- - 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoon water)
- - 1 banana, smashed
- - ½ cup sunflower butter
- - ½ cup pure maple syrup
- - 1 cup gluten-free old fashioned rolled oats
- - ¾ cup gluten-free oat flour
- - ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- - ½ tsp baking powder
- - ½ cup dried cranberries
- - ½ cup slivered almonds
Preparation
- - Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- - In a large mixing bowl, whisk up the flax egg and allow to sit for ~5 minutes to gel.
- - Smash the banana in the same bowl and add in the sunflower butter and maple syrup.
- - Mix in the rolled oats, oat flour, cinnamon, and baking powder and stir well to combine.
- - Add in the cranberries and almonds.
- - Drop batter onto the baking sheet using the 1/4 measuring cup making 15 cookies.
- - Bake for 22-25 minutes, until golden brown underneath and around the edges.
- Reminder: Cool before serving. Store leftover cookies in the fridge for up to one week and freeze for long term storage.
Hello! I'm Ann Marie and I wear the well-worn apron. Join me as explore plant-based eating while I live on an island off the U.S. state of Rhode Island.