Vegan Oatmeal Pecan Cranberry Cookies

My best friend and partner in culinary adventure, Emily, helped me develop this recipe over the weekend. Even after eating several spoonfuls of the raw dough (perfectly healthy since there's no diary or eggs, right?), we still had about 3 dozen cookies to serve at the impromptu dinner party that went down that evening. Each and every one was eaten within four hours. Success!

I especially like them, because they're heavy on the oats and extra hearty. However, that aspect combined with the lack of egg makes for a very delicate cookie. Let’s call this the beta version of this recipe with a more cohesive version 2.0 to possibly follow. Please don’t let that deter you from trying this cookie out. Scouts honor: they’re delicious.

***Yields 3 dozen cookies***

Vegan Oatmeal Pecan Cranberry Cookies
1/2c Whole wheat pastry flour
1tsp Powdered cinnamon
1/2tsp Powdered nutmeg
1/2tsp Baking soda
1/2tsp Salt
2c Rolled oats
1c Chopped pecans
1c Dried cranberries (I prefer the kind sweetened with apple juice)
1/2c Vegan butter (I recommend Earth Balance Original)
1c Sugar
1/4c Canola Oil
1/2c Applesauce
2tbsp Water
1tsp Pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, sift together the whole wheat pastry flour, powdered cinnamon, powdered nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Thoroughly stir in the rolled oats, chopped pecans, and dried cranberries.

In a large bowl, cream together the vegan butter and sugar for 5 to 10 minutes, or until fluffy. Mix in the canola oil, applesauce, water, and pure vanilla extra. Add the dry mixture, and combine into a workable dough.

Grease a large baking sheet. Form the dough into small, compact balls with a teaspoon, and drop on the baking sheet about 2" apart. It is very important to keep the cookies small, because larger cookies are more likely to crumble. Also, these cookies will flatten out and expand a good deal while baking, so give them a lot of space on the sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the cookies are brown on the edges. Remove from heat, and allow to cool to room temperature before gently using a spatula to take the cookies of the baking sheet.