Oatmeal Cookies

James is coming to visit me in a couple of weeks and I like to use his visits as an excuse to bake. I always think "finally, I'll have someone to eat the product other than myself" and avoid the dangers of living and baking alone.

I asked what baked good he craves most, that I haven't made yet, and he said oatmeal cookies...something dense and chewy. None of the oatmeal cookie recipes I had bookmarked seemed...right, so I decided it would be fun to try and adapt my own. I chose this Chewy Oatmeal Cookie Recipe as my inspiration because, compared to others, it had the least amount of sugar to deal with. However, I also had James' lactose-intolerant to consider, so I replaced the butter and followed a few of his requests.

I had never adapted a sugar-ed recipe to sugar-free before, so this was a process and it took me two tries. The first time I made them, my preparation was all theoretical—reducing the amount of sugar, increasing the dry ingredients, etc... I also converted everything to weight...and accidentally got the honey wrong, woops. So, the first batch was super runny, until I scrambled to add more oats and flour to make them cookie like, which was fine, but it meant I didn't really end up with a solid recipe. So, I tried again and decided upon the following recipe...

These cookies have crispy edges, and a soft center. They're chewy and lemony (my favourite characteristic), but not very heavy or rich...the kind of cookie where you eat the whole batch in one day.

Oatmeal Cookies
(makes about 3 dozen 20 gram cookies; inspired by Chewy Oatmeal Cookie Recipe)

Ingredients:

• 115 grams coconut oil
• 160 grams  honey
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 150 grams spelt flour
• 165 grams oats
• 50 grams almond flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• zest of one lemon

Instructions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream coconut oil and honey. Mix in egg and vanilla until combined.
2. In another bowl, whisk together flours, oats, baking soda, salt, spices and zest.
3. Add dry to wet and mix until combined.
4. At this point you can refrigerate the dough for a thicker cookie, or scoop and bake immediately—I lean towards the quicker option. Either way, gently flatten each cookie scoop and bake at 325 for about 10 minutes.