Flourless & vegan chocolate chip cookies

I really suck at preparing for the holidays.

Oh, how I long to be the person who mails their holiday cards weeks in advance, or buys christmas presents in April!  If only I were more like my Grandma Vera, who just bought next year’s holiday cards in the “After Christmas Sale” rack.  Now that woman is prepared.

But I’m not.  I’m a “better late than never, fly by the seat of your holiday pants” kind of girl. So this year, when I forgot (again) to get my cousins something for their stockings, I decided that I would take advantage of my time home on the Texan farm to bake cookies for New Years.

Yes!  New Years!

I may have missed Christmas, but this year I am helping friends and family ring in the new year with something tasty.  Huzzah!

Now, I have friends with all sorts of dietary preferences and requirements, so choosing the right recipe is an art form.  Perhaps it’s just the nature of the yoga biz, but you never know if someone is gluten-free, vegan, paleo, dairy free, seed, or nut free.  And then I have also friends who roll their eyes such nonsense and mock me for not using good ol’ butter, shortening and white flour in baking.

I found this recipe on a delightul site called Chocolate Covered Katie (Katie is my kind of gal), and made a couple of minor adjustments.  Now, while these aren’t strictly gluten free for those who are allergic (they are made with ground oats), for most people who are gluten-preferential, they’ll do just fine.  I used almond milk and vegan chocolate chips (Ghiradelli makes chips without milkfat – simply read the ingredient list on your brand of chips to see if you’ve got some winners) to please my vegan friends.  I used coconut oil in lieu of melted butter to please my lactose intolerant peeps.  However, I used no steak (sorry, paleos).  I also used a stupid amount of chocolate chips.  Just because.

Here you go!  Enjoy!

Rachel’s “I forgot Christmas; wait here are your New Year’s cookies!”

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp plus 2 tsp white sugar
• 2 tbsp chocolate chips (um, I just dumped a lot in)
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1-2 tbsp almond milk of choice (start with 1)

Instructions:

• Blend first 5 ingredients together in your food processor, blender,  Vita-Mix, etc.  This will turn your oats into a nice flour and blend all the dry stuff together nicely.
• Fold in other wet ingredients. Don’t add too much, and stir thoroughly before you decide to add more.
• Use a spoon to form into cookie shapes (your hands will make dough too warm and stick) and place on a greased (with coconut oil!) cookie sheet.
• Cook 6 minutes at 375 F. (For thinner, harder cookies, you can cook a bit longer.  At 6 minutes, they won’t look quite done, but they “congeal” and settle as they cool.  Uh, sorry, “congeal” is a bad word, but they’re all delicious!

This recipe only makes about 8 cookies. For my New Years baking, I multiplied the recipe by 10. For a regular batch, at least double it.

Happy Happy!