But in recent vegan food news from the Beers household my mom took her cook game to a new level yesterday. A few things on my mom first, so you can understand the rest of this post: 1) The woman is never sick, like ever. Nothing I'm going to say after this sentence has anything to do with sickness but this fact only supports my hypothesis that she is Superwoman, and me thinking she's Superwoman has a lot to do with what I'm about to say. 2) She never fails to surprise me. Besides being able to pass as my mom's twin we're a lot alike in the way we express ourselves.
But based off last night she's proof positive that anyone can take the leap to vegan baking and still be adventurous at...a...umm...a quite spry and young age!
Enter: what was supposed to be Oatmeal Raisin Cookies but what turned into Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Bars because (behold, another similarity between us!) my mom likes dessert but doesn't like waiting for it.
The ingredients and directions are as follows (fyi: I plan on making up the directions because she made these, like I said, when I was at work, so I haven't got a clue about what she did):
3/4 cup vegan margarine* (if you don't want to go out of your way to find this I've found that canola oil works just as well, however, given the dry consistency of this dough pre-baking I suggest you stick with the margarine)
1/2 cup suga (white or brown-packed-will do the trick but my momma used white)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup non-dairy milk**
1 cup flour (She used unbleached all-purpose. I don't suggest anything too "unrefined", such as an all-wheat flour, simply because those flours require more moisture than this recipe naturally provides-it'll get too complicated if you try to get fancy)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup raisins***
3 cup oats (She used old-fashioned aka the best)
*Don't think you have to look too hard or pay a ridiculous amount of money for vegan margarine. Smart Balance sells a vegan margarine, just look for the words non-dairy or vegan on the side of the container. If you're left with extra you can use it like butter on toast, to "butter" a skillet or baking pan, in/on mashed or baked potatoes-you get the point.
**Any non-dairy milk will work my favorites are almond and soy. Coconut is flavor and might be a fun ingredient addition and/but it's higher in fat-this means two things 1) it'll make for a richer cookie 2) it's higher in fat.
***I learned from my aunt a long time ago that if you put raisins in a pan with a lid and just a teeny bit of water on low heat after a few minutes the raisins will plump as a result of absorbing some of the moisture. I highly suggest you do this.
Pre-heat your oven to 350
Beat (I always imagine a cave man's club here, but I assume they'd like you to use a hand-mixer instead) the margarine, suga, and vanilla in a large bowl.
Stir in the non-dairy milk of your choice.
In a separate bowl stir together with a fork flour, baking soda, salt, spices, and oats.
Add the flour mixture, one scoop at a time to the wet ingredient mixture. Mix thoroughly then add the raisins.
Bake as cookies for 8 to 10 minutes or as bars in a 13x9 pan for 15 minutes.
Okay, here is the one and only down fall of the these. If you bake them in the pan when you try to get the first one out it's not going to be pretty. These cookies come a part a little more easily than normal but what they lack in conglomeration (I think I just made up a word-who knows...) they make up for in flavor.
Make them, be happy, sharrrre the love.
Ma, what are you making me next?
Ciao!
P.S. I promise the next food post won't be about baked goods, in fact, vegetables will be present.