Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Spelt Cookies

I'm trying to eat less white wheat flour and less refined sugar. But everyone needs a little treat now and then, so my challenge this week was to make a cookie that had neither.

Here's what I came up with...an almond, walnut, coconut, cinnamon, spelt flour and oatmeal cookie, sweetened with honey and maple syrup. No need to feel hard done by with these little numbers in the cookie jar...

I did a small batch because the more I bake the more I eat, but you could easily double the recipe for a more traditional sized batch.

Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Spelt Cookies

Makes 16 cookies

1/3 cup grapeseed oil

1/4 cup almond butter

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon of Ceylon cinnamon* (read more below) or regular cinnamon
3/4 cup spelt flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl combine oil and almond butter until blended. Add honey, maple syrup, baking powder and baking soda. Beat with electric mixer until combined. Beat in egg, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat in the flour (keep mixer speed on low). Stir in oats, coconut and walnuts.

Drop by rounded teaspoon about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes until edges are lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Makes about 16 delicious cookies.

Can someone please explain how cookies failed to make this list? C'mon!

* A bit about Ceylon cinnamon:

I recently learned that the cinnamon commonly sold in North American supermarkets is a variety known as Cassia cinnamon. It's dark reddish in colour and tastes like the cinnamon I've come to know. But there is another variety, native to Sri Lanka, the only place where cinnamon is a native plant, known as Ceylon cinnamon (sometimes called true cinnamon.) It is softer and lighter in colour, milder and sweeter, and tastes like a blend of cinnamon and cardamom. It's a bit more expensive and available at health and specialty stores.

A note about my new header:

It's a composite shot of some of my previous recipes, inspired by the creative stylings of ana at imadeitso.com. thanks for the idea, ana!

Vanilla Maple Blueberry Cake

Birthday surprise....

This post is long overdue. A while back, I had a birthday. And I must have been hinting pretty hard about wanting a cake. In fact, I know I was. 

A few days before my birthday, Mr. PL and I were watching something on TV and someone was messing up some baking...dropping the egg right into the flour or something like that. I wondered aloud about how it was they didn't know about 'wet' and 'dry' ingredients. Mr. PL said..."I guess baking's a lot like chemistry." Well, I saw my chance.

"Have you ever baked anything?" I asked. "Like cookies? Or a cake?"

"No, I don't think I have," he said.

"Hmmm. You should try it sometime," was my casual reply.

Now, I wasn't hinting with the expectation that my subtle 'request' would be at all acknowledged. But in the back of my mind I thought, "Wouldn't it be sweet if he got my drift and baked me a cake for my birthday?" Poor guys...I mean really. It's no wonder they never know what we're taking about.

Much to my delight, I arrived home on my birthday to find a beautiful cake. And, a funny story about how he tried to blend a hard block of butter with some water and a hand blender, only to end up with butter on the walls. Some of the butter stayed in the bowl and made it into the batter in chunks. His rationale: they'll melt. Well, he was right - the cake was delicious!

He also surprised me with a set of photos that I could post on my blog. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story...

Vanilla...

Maple...

Blueberry....

Cake!

Sweet :)