Sugar-free Oatmeal Pecan Cookies

These are seriously good. And seriously vegan, gluten-free, and sugar-free (except for the tiny amount of sugar in the pumpkin puree). BAM. A tri-fecta of guilt-abolishing truths about desserts. I've made them a few times now, and while the texture isn't quite perfect, they stay together pretty well considering how many substitutions are in them. And everyone I've shared them with to (n=10) loved the flavor -- even though most don't follow a vegan, gluten-free, or sugar-free diet.

**These are loosely based on this recipe.

Sugar-free Oatmeal Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup Stevia in the Raw
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1 tsp. salt
1/2 - 1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
4 - 5 tbsp. coconut oil, warmed to liquid
3 - 4 tsp. vanilla extract (to taste)
1/2 cup gluten-free oats OR quinoa flakes (I've tried both and either way, you'll eat every last one)
1/2 cup pecan pieces (either raw or roasted will work)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the almond flour, sorghum flour, baking powder, stevia, shredded coconut, salt, and cinnamon together. Add the pumpkin puree, melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract and mix well. Add in the oats or quinoa flakes and pecan pieces and mix well. It will be slightly crumbly, but it should still be stick enough to roll into little balls. If it's not, add a little more melted coconut oil and/or vanilla extract until it is.

Roll into tablespoon-sized balls and line up on a lined cookie sheet. These don't really spread much, so you can put them pretty close together. Bake for 7 - 11 minutes or just until light golden brown on top. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. Eat as many as you want before storing in an airtight container (for best results so they don't crumble when they rub against each other, separate layers with waxed paper). 

Airy Mexican Wedding Cookies

I'm a pretty predictable person, in an almost mathematical way. Overcast afternoon + pressing deadline for work or school = I will definitely be baking something. Sometimes all I really need is the pressing deadline for work or school. #masterprocrastinator

Some of the omissions in this cookie recipe may make you skeptical. No eggs? Only 2 tbsp. sugar for the entire batch of cookie dough? Add to that the fact that I decided to cut the fat down by substituting applesauce and vegan cream cheese for some of the butter, and it really makes you wonder how it could still end up being a cookie-like creation.

I know. Me too.

But trust me - these are anything but skimpy. They are light and tender and wonderfully full of vanilla, with a lovely little crunch from the pecans. Just be careful when you're eating them, as the powdered sugar may or may not explode all over your clothes when you take a bite. (Some of my friends avoided this quite deftly by just popping the whole thing into their mouth at once. So....you have options.)

And the best part is that these take almost no time to throw together. The dough comes together in a matter of minutes, and they will be melting in your mouth before you know it.

Gluten-free Mexican Wedding Cookies (Adapted from this recipe)
Makes 20 - 24 small cookies

3 tbsp. Earth Balance butter stick
3 tbsp. vegan cream cheese
2 tbsp. smooth applesauce
2 tbsp. white sugar
1.5 tbsp. vanilla
1 cup gluten-free flour blend
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 - 3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/3 - 1/2 cup powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, mix together the Earth Balance, vegan cream cheese, and applesauce with an electric mixer. Add in the 2 tbsp. white sugar and vanilla and continue to blend until all ingredients are creamed.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add in stages to the cookie dough batter, mixing each bit in with the electric mixer. By hand, stir in the chopped pecans.

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place on the parchment paper. Bake at 300 F for about 15 - 18 minutes, or just until the bottoms are browned and they are firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and let sit on the cookie sheet for 2 - 3 minutes, then roll each one in powdered sugar while still warm and place on a cooling rack. Once cooled, roll in powdered sugar once more time. Store in an airtight container with layers separated with waxed paper so they don't stick together. 

Maple Oat "Brownies" with Maple Drizzle

This isn't really a brownie in the chocolate sense, but it's the closest thing I could compare the texture to. These were an experiment, adapted from a recipe from the Gluten-free Goddess' website for Oatmeal-Quinoa Breakfast Brownies. The idea sounded great to me, but I decided to spruce them up with one of my favorite things in the world - maple. Also, I have not been able to find a lot of my specialty flours here in Swaziland, so I had to make some substitutions there as well. And even though my family sent me some gluten-free oats, I have been using them very sparingly, and so instead of using all oats, I used half rolled oats and buckwheat flakes to conserve my supply. Feel free to use all oats in place of the buckwheat flakes in this recipe. I am notoriously bad at waiting for baked goods to cool before trying them, and so predictably, as soon as these came out of the oven, I cut a small piece, expecting the maple flavor to burst into my mouth. Maybe I set my expectations too high, because I was a little disappointed with the flavor when they were hot from the oven. But let me tell you - once they cooled, these tasted phenomenally good. I didn't add as much sugar as Karina did in her recipe, but I made up for that by drizzling a simple powdered sugar-icing over the brownies to add a bit of extra sweetness. I had to give most of these away because I was in very real danger of eating the entire pan all by myself! '

Maple Oat "Brownies" with Maple Drizzle

¾ cup rice flour

¾ cup sorghum flour

½ cup potato starch

½ cup rolled oats

½ cup buckwheat flakes

¼ cup shredded coconut

1 teaspoon xanthan gum 
3/4 teaspoon sea salt 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice 
1 1/2 cups organic light brown sugar

2 eggs

2/3 cup olive oil

2 tbsp. maple syrup

2 tsp. maple extract

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 - 5 tbsp. soy milk

½ cup crushed pecans or the nut of your choice

½ cup chocolate chunks or chips

For the maple drizzle: 1 - 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 2 - 4 tbsp. water

1 - 2 tsp. maple extract 

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Combine all the dry ingredients (including the brown sugar) in a bowl and mix very well. In another small bowl, combine the eggs, oil, maple syrup, maple extract, and vanilla extract and then add to the dry ingredients. Mix well. At this stage, it will likely appear a little dry and crumbly; add 3 - 5 tbsp. soy milk (or other non-dairy milk) until the mixture is smoother and more consistent. Add the pecans or any other nuts of your choice and the chocolate chunks. Pour the dough into an 11" x 13" greased/sprayed pan, and press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before cutting.  

To make the Maple Drizzle:  

Put the powdered sugar into a bowl and add 1 - 2 tsp. maple extract and 2 tbsp. water to start and mix well. Add water one tablespoonful at a time until you have the consistency you desire. Drizzle onto the brownies only once they have completely cooled. Cut and serve. Store in the refrigerator or freeze, wrapped individually in foil.

To make this vegan,  substitute 1.5 tsp egg replacer + 2 tbsp. warm water for the egg.

Coconut Dark Chocolate Cookie Bars

Oh, I have missed baking dearly this last month I've been away. I decided to treat myself today and buy ingredients for just a simple recipe, so when I caught a ride in to work this morning, I took a little detour to the Superspar grocery store - the slightly nicer store in Mbabane. And the one that has at least a few gluten-free flour mixes. I had already bought a self-raising flour mix that I was waiting to use, and so I went down the baking aisle and grabbed a bag of coconut, a cheap bottle of vanilla flavoring, and after a careful search that yielded no discoveries of chocolate chips, headed over to the candy section to pick out a dark chocolate bar that I could chop up and use for these bars. These fabulous goodies were inspired by the cookie bars on the Gluten-Free Goddess' website. Karina, who blogs her wonderfully creative and always delicious adventures in the kitchen, came up with this very simple recipe for some knockout cookie bars using coconut, and I basically used the same recipe with a few substitutes for ingredients I could find here in Swaziland. Her recipe calls for chocolate chips; I used a whole chocolate bar. Hers calls for Spectrum shortening; I have roughly zero chance of finding that here and so substituted a baking margarine I found here. I didn't have finely granulated brown sugar, so I used raw. I love vanilla and added a little more than what was originally called for. And instead of Pamela's, I used the only flour mix I have available to me: Orgran Self-Raising Flour mix, free of all allergens. If I could have found any, I would have added some crushed pecans into the batter as well, but alas, only macadamia and cashew nuts showed themselves in the Superspar. As I marched into the kitchen with an armful of baking ingredients, Celiwe looked over at me and exclaimed, "Siphiwe is baking a cake!" with a big smile (Siphiwe is my Swazi name), and she and the other staff watched me with some interest as I started putting the ingredients together, stirring and measuring out the flour and brown sugar. Celiwe stepped in and started stirring the dough for me as I spooned in the flour bit by bit, and when she finished stirring it all in, she took a little taste and said, "Oh! That is nice. That is going to be a good cake, sisi (sister)." And she was right - they were some pretty awesome (and yes, very cake-like) cookie bars. All of the staff tried a piece and they agreed that it was "very nice," one of them even exclaiming, "Oh! If I could have this for Christmas, I would just be happy." So, consider these a treat worthy of any occasion; they're extremely easy to put together, ingredient-light, and everyone will love them.


Coconut Dark Chocolate Cookie Bars

1/2 cup baking margarine, vegetable oil, or Spectrum shortening (if you can find it!)
1 cup brown sugar, packed firmly
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
2 cups self-raising flour (your favorite brand, or your own blend of flours with salt and baking powder added in)
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1 whole dark chocolate bar, chopped into very small pieces OR 12 oz. bag of dark chocolate chips
1/2 - 3/4 cup finely chopped pecan pieces (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 F or 180 C. Allow the margarine to come to room temperature and beat, adding the brown sugar in to mix well. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix. Add the flour bit by bit, stirring carefully to mix it all in. Then add the coconut and add 3/4 of the chocolate and 3/4 of the pecans and stir to mix. The dough will be pretty thick at this point. Grease a 9 x 13 pan and press the dough into it, and then sprinkle the rest of the chocolate and pecans on top and press into the dough. Bake for about 20 -25 minutes, being careful not to overbake so it doesn't get too dry. I'd err on the side of removing from the oven after 20 minutes rather than waiting too long. Allow to cool and then either top with a dark chocolate ganache drizzle, or serve by itself - with hot tea or coffee is preferred!