Eating The Sky

Say one day you are looking through your cupboard and see all the ingredients necessary for oatmeal cookies except...oh no, you're out of eggs! And OMG butter too! Gosh I was really wanting some oatmeal cookies...built up a taste and everything. Well, you know... bananas are a great substitution for eggs in a cookie recipe! Don't believe me, try it. Also, coconut butter (same as oil) is a great substitute for butter. Sub both the eggs and the butter and these babies are VEGAN! What's even lovelier is the fact that coconut and banana compliment the flavor of the oatmeal. These are gonna be tasteeee.

Let's get started. Put 3oz of coconut butter in a small dish the freezer (one that will make it easy to pull the whole chunk out later). In a mixing bowl put a peeled banana and squash down with a fork and then blend it until it is smooth. Notice it gets to a very egg-like consistency. Next measure out 1/3 cup sugar and blend it into the banana. Add 2 tbsp of honey, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of cinnamon. If you wanted to, you could add a tsp of flax meal, which will act a little bit like eggs when mixed with liquids, and add a little softness to the final cookies. Chill for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Chop about 2 handfuls of almonds in a blender. Don't over grind. You want some chunks.

Remove the coconut butter from the freezer and the dish. Chop into pea-sized chunks and add to the banana mix. Add a cup of oatmeal and stir until combined well. Mix a half cup of all purpose or whole wheat flour (or for gluten-free try brown rice or sorghum flour instead) and a half teaspoon of baking soda or powder. If you use baking soda add a large pinch of corn or tapioca starch to soften the final cookies a bit. Don't overmix or you'll start gluten formation and that is good for bread, but bad for cookies. Add additional flour as needed to get the cookies to the consistency where when you break off a bit of the dough you can roll it in your dry-ish hands without it sticking much at all. I like to bake off one or two cookies before I do the rest.

With the oven pre-heated to 350, put the cookies on a sheet pan spaced about a half inch or more apart, then bake for 11 minutes. The results should be 1/4-1/3 inch tall cookies with banana and coconut hitting your nose right before your mouth bites into a slightly crispy outside texture, then giving into a chewy and slightly fluffy interior. Not too sweet either. Great with a cup of hot green tea.

15 cookies for about $4 in under a half-hour.

Organic ingredients from Vitamin Cottage: whole wheat flour, Horizon butter, oats, cane sugar, banana