These cookies cover so many good fronts – they taste good and they contain healthy ingredients! Lots of oats, more oats than whole wheat flour, oat bran or wheat bran, sucanat sugar (natural sugar), and dried fruit. I have made them a couple of different ways. I have to thank “The Big Carrot Vegetarian Cookbook” for the foundation of this recipe.
The first time I made these I followed the recipe exactly, using butter, eggs and all of the required raisins. Our son took one look, and was quickly disappointed that the dark spots in the cookies were raisins and not chocolate! What is it with raisins and kids, especially cooked raisins! They are not largely appealing.
I went back to the basic recipe and changed the raisin quantity. Of the 1 cup of required raisins I made a batch with 1/3 cup raisins, 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds and 1/3 cup sunflower seeds. As shown in the picture below, the pumpkin seeds look nice, and the cookies were a hit! He ate them!
Yesterday I went back to the basic recipe and changed out the fats. I used 1/3 cup coconut oil and 2/3 cup ghee butter. The eggs I replaced with mashed ripe banana and apple sauce. I would recommend doing all applesauce, or half applesauce and half banana, to limit any banana flavor. (More egg replacement information here). Wow, these were amazing cookies, and hence the title of “pure burning fats”. When I ate this cookie made with these fats I felt like the cookie just dissolved in me, without sluggishness. I made them with the raisins, but they could be made with either raisins or raisins mixed with the seeds. The big difference is the milk solids that are still in butter, but have been removed in ghee butter (for more on ghee butter see the video on How To Make Ghee Butter). The milk solids require more work to digest and therefore linger longer in the system. The coconut oil is a pure burning oil, and the fruit replacing the eggs took out the fats that are found in the yolks. The cookies held together nicely without the eggs, without compromising on the texture either.
When baking cookies, I like to use parchment paper. Unbleached parchment paper is available at health food stores. I wrestle with the trade off of wasting the paper, or exposing my baking to aluminum. And I wrestle with the easier clean up from the paper versus using more water without the paper. One of my ways to feel less guilty is to use the paper several times over, being careful of any nut ingredients that may be lingering on the paper. You decide what works for you and your family.
Here is the recipe. Follow the usual techniques to make cookies, creaming the fat, adding sugar etc.
Treat yourself to a treat that speaks to your good health!
Pure Burning Raisin Cookies
2 cups quick cooking oats
2/3 cup oat or wheat bran
1/3 cup coconut oil
2/3 cup ghee (clarified) butter OR replace coconut oil and ghee with 1 cup of butter
1 cup sucanat
1 t vanilla
1/2 cup egg replacement (applesauce, mashed banana, or combination of this) OR 2 eggs
1 1/3 cups soft whole wheat flour
1 T pumpkin spice (or scroll to the bottom of this recipe to make your own pumpkin spice, double this recipe)
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 cup raisins or 1/3 cup raisin, 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
Turn on the oven to 375ºF and while it is preheating place the quick oats and bran on a cookie sheet in the oven. This will dry roast these ingredients to give a less dense cookie. Set a timer for 8 minutes, then take the cookie sheet out of the oven and let cool.
Cream together the ghee and coconut oil, or butter, to soften. Use an electric hand mixer, or do this by hand. Add the sugar 1/2 cup at a time and continue to cream together. Then add in the egg replacement or eggs, half the quantity at a time, mixing well between additions. Then add the vanilla.
Now add all of the remaining ingredients at one time. The oats, bran, flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda, salt, and raisins or raisin seed mixture. Fully mix all of the ingredients together, pressing lightly as you are folding everything around.
Form into cookies using a spoon, place on a sheet of parchment paper or on the cookie sheet itself. Bake in the preheated oven for 4 minutes. Set a timer or you may be disappointed! If you are using 2 or more cookie sheets, then shift the cookie sheets around after 4 minutes. Bake for a further 4 minutes. If you have a convection oven that is reliable to bake everything evenly, then skip that last step and take out the cookies after 8 minutes.
Take the cookies out of the oven. Let them sit for 3 minutes before moving to cooling racks (see photo below). These cookies can be eaten when they are warm, but save some to share with others in your outside the home world! Everyone loves home baking!
Makes approximately 30 cookies.
Namaste