Lately, I have been experimenting with using chick pea flour in baking. Its taste is quite pronounced if you try the batter pre-baking, but afterwards it doesn’t really taste much at all, and works very well as an egg-replacer. These cookies hold their shape quite nicely and won’t fall apart in the tea cup. I also got some oat flour from our organic delivery, but finely ground oats would work just as well.

The Cookie Dough (4 cookies, or 6 smaller ones):

• 1 and 1/2 dl oat flour
• 1/2 dl desiccated coconut
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 2 tablespoons chick pea flour (gram)
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 tablespoon rose water
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 1 tablespoon muscovado sugar
• some more desiccated coconut (to cover the cookies)

I first stirred the dry ingredients – oat flour through salt – together with a fork, then combined all the liquid ingredients, and mixed everything together until well combined. I divided the dough in 4 equal portions, rolled them into balls, rolled the balls in desiccated coconut, and flattened them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. The cookies were about 3/4 cm thick before baking. I baked them in 175 degrees Celsius for 7 minutes, until browned around the edges, and then removed the cookies from the baking sheet to cool down.

The flatter the cookie, the shorter the baking time, and the crispier the result! Agave syrup seems to brown quickly, so it’s best to check after 5 minutes.

These biscuits are called kauralastu or kaurapitsi in Finnish – “oat shavings” or “oat lace”. They are extremely sweet, a little too sweet to eat on their own for my taste, but more than perfect served with ice cream. We also used these to make ice cream sandwiches, with vanilla ice cream and blueberries – yum!

This batch makes a lot of biscuits, and we still have a jar full of them, but stored in an airtight container they keep for at least a few weeks.

Thin Oat Biscuits (makes 50-60):

• 3 and 1/2 dl rolled oats
• 1/2 dl whole wheat flour
• 2 and 1/2 dl sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 dl liquid margarine (or 100 g melted)
• 1/2 dl muscovado sugar
• 3/4 dl soy milk
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

We first mixed all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, then added in all the liquids, and finally just stirred with a fork until combined.

Then we covered a baking sheet with parchment paper and dropped teaspoonfuls of the batter on the sheet. The first sheet was a bit crowded, and we ended up with one very large biscuit! A teaspoonful of batter makes a biscuit that’s about the size of the palm of my hand, so these really do spread out quite a lot. We found out that making about 10 per baking sheet was good.

We baked our biscuits in 200 degrees Celsius for 5-7 minutes, until their edges had browned. At first, they needed 7 minutes, but once the oven had warmed more, 5 minutes was just enough – it’s important to keep an eye on them after 4 minutes, since the edges can turn black in less than a minute’s extra time.

After baking, we slided the parchment paper from the baking sheet to the kitchen counter, and let the biscuits cool down for a few seconds. Straight out of the oven, they don’t keep together well, but after only a few seconds they start to firm up. We wanted to make some curved biscuits too, so we lifted them with a thin spatula and carefully placed over a rolling pin. Now, if the biscuits had cooled down too long, they wouldn’t bend any more, so this is a little tricky. But flat biscuits are just as good!

Heikki also molded some of the biscuits in small bowls, and they make really pretty desserts with berries and ice cream!

These cookies were molded in small bowls right after baking.

Wet Mix:

• 2 teaspoons ground flaxseed
• 4 tablespoons oat milk
• 0,8 dl liquid (or melted) margarine
• 1 and 1/2 dl muscovado sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon rum extract

Dry Mix:

• 2 dl wheat flour
• 1 dl whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Plus:

• 1 dl chopped chocolate (about 70 grams)

First, I mixed together the flaxseed and the oat milk in our tiny food processor until the mixture was smooth. Then I added this to the rest of the wet mix ingredients and stirred for a while, to melt the sugar a little.

I mixed the dry ingredients in another bowl, preheated the oven to 175 degrees Celsius, and covered a baking sheet with parchment paper. Then I chopped the chocolate on a cutting board with a heavy knife (chocolate chips are quite rare and expensive in Finland).

I stirred the wet mix once again for a few minutes to mix in the melted sugar (it doesn’t have to melt all the way), and then added this to the dry mix. I mixed the dough with a wooden fork until combined and then added the chocolate and incorporated them in the dough that was quite stiff at this point. Some of the chocolate pieces just didn’t want to stay inside the dough, so I pressed them on top of the cookies before baking.

Now, I rolled the dough into little balls with a diameter of about 3 cm, flattened them to about 1 cm thick, and placed them on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. These cookies don’t spread out too much, so all the 20 cookies fit on one baking sheet just fine.

I baked the cookies in 175 degrees for about 9-10 minutes. They were soft when I took them out of the oven, but the surface crisped up while cooling down.

These cookies are imbued with a sweet and mellow hazelnut flavor – I added a little bit of cocoa powder just for the color effect. The texture is crispy and sandy, very nice with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

The Cookie Dough (makes about 50 cookies):

• 1 and 1/2 dl vegan margarine, at room temperature
• 1,2 dl sugar
• 1 tablespoon potato starch mixed with 3 tablespoons water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 and 1/2 dl wheat flour
• 1/2 dl spelt flour
• 1 dl finely ground hazelnuts
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tablespoon dark cocoa powder for the darker brown dough
• 1/2 tablespoon ground hazelnut and a pinch of turmeric for the lighter brown dough

I creamed together the sugar and the margarine until the mixture was fluffy and white. Then I added the potato starch-water -mixture and the vanilla extract in the bowl, and whisked them in with the margarine.

I mixed the flours, hazelnut, baking powder, and salt in another bowl, and then combined the two mixes with a wooden fork until combined. Now, I divided the dough in two, and added the cocoa powder in the other half, and a little bit more hazelnut and a pinch of turmeric in the other. Now, I had two different colors of cookie dough.

At this point, I stuffed half of each dough in my cookie press only to break it while pressing the first cookie. Since the dough I’d stuffed in the cookie press was already mixed, I had to make it into regular flat cookies, but I rolled them in ground hazelnut to give them some extra appeal. I baked the first batch for 7 minutes in 200 degrees Celsius.

The rest of the two doughs I used for pinwheels. I flattened them to form two rectangular disks of the same size, about 1/2 cm thick each. I placed the disks one upon the other, and then rolled them along the longer edge to form a nice little log. Now, I sliced 1/2 cm thick cookies out of the dough with a sharp knife, placed them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, and baked the cookies for 6 minutes in 200 degrees Celsius.

The cookies shouldn’t brown too much underneath – they are quite soft straight out of the oven, but will crisp up while cooling.

The white chocolate I used was Bonvita Rice Milk White Bar, and the reason I baked it into cookies was that it’s completely too sweet to eat as is. I love white chocolate, but will stick with the Organica White Bar variety from now on – if I’m able to hunt it down somewhere in Helsinki.

Two of the cookie flavors had white chocolate in them, and compared to the dark chocolate cookies, those were a lot sweeter. All in all, I liked all three, and would definitely make each one of them again!

The Wet Mix:

• 1 dl canola oil
• 1 and 1/2 dl raw cane sugar
• 1 dl soy milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla sugar)

The Dry Mix:

• 3 dl whole spelt flour
• 1 dl wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 dl rolled oats

Additions:

• 55 g vegan white chocolate, chopped
• 55 g vegan semi-dark chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 dl dried cranberries
• 1 tablespoon dark cocoa powder

I mixed the wet and dry mixes in separate bowls first, and then combined the two with a wooden fork. Now, I divided the dough in three equal parts, and then mixed in the chocolates and the cranberries: in the first part, I put half of the white chocolate and one third of the dark chocolate; in the second part, I added the cocoa powder and the rest of the dark chocolate; and in the third, I mixed the cranberries and the second half of the white chocolate. The dough was quite sticky and stiff at this point, so it took a little effort to get everything well mixed.

I covered three baking sheets with baking parchment. I scooped the dough on baking sheets, one tablespoon at a time, and then flattened the cookies with a fork dipped in cold water. I ended up with 12 of each variety. Then I baked the cookies at 200 degrees Celsius for 7-8 minutes.

Obviously, coconut milk is not the most healthy ingredient, and it pretty much is the only source of saturated fats for vegans. On the other hand, non-vegans eat saturated fats all the time, and one batch of these delicious cookies won’t change that. What it could change is the attitude toward vegan baking as difficult and dubious, we hope. And, most importantly, home-made gifts are the best even without any health-related or ideological motivations!

Cookie mix ingredients:

• 2 dl wheat flour
• 1 and 1/2 dl spelt flour
• 1 dl granulated sugar
• 1/2 dl raw cane sugar
• 1 tablespoon & 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons egg replacer powder (we have NoEgg brand)
• 1 dl nuts (we had cashews and walnuts), chopped
• 100 g dark vegan chocolate, chopped

Also needed:

• 2 dl coconut cream (1 small can)

First, we chopped the nuts and chocolate. Then we combined the cookie mix ingredients in a small bowl, and then poured them in zip lock bags. We mixed just one batch at a time to make sure that the proportions would be right. Then we stapled a label with instructions on how to make the cookies on the cookie mix bag, and gift-wrapped it with a can of coconut cream.

Instructions on how to make the cookies:

1. Preheat the oven in 190 degrees Celsius and cover two baking sheets with baking parchment.
2. Pour the cookie mix ingredients in a bowl.
3. Open the coconut cream can and stir with a teaspoon until smooth.
4. Pour the coconut cream in the bowl with the cookie mix and mix with a wooden fork. Only mix just enough to incorporate everything, don’t overmix.
5. Use a little more than a tablespoon of the dough per cookie. You can round the cookies at the edges, but there’s no need to flatten them before baking. There should be about 9 cookies on each cookie sheet.
6. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, in 190 degrees Celsius, for about 12 minutes. These cookies shouldn’t get browned on top, only slightly on edges and in the bottom – this way they’ll be more yummy.
7. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and place the cookies to cool on baking parchment or a cooling rack, with the help of a cheese-cutter, a cake server, or a thin spatula. The cookies will be soft straight out of the oven, but their surface gets crispy when cooled.
8. Enjoy!
9. If you have leftover cookies, store them in an air tight plastic bag (in the cookie mix bag, for example).

One of our unsuspecting testers enjoys her tea with cookies.