This cookie has a lot going on
A recipe-in-progress for vegan oatmeal ginger molasses coconut cookies
Before we moved I tried to use up all our random frozen and pantry ingredients — vegetables from the winter, old beans, lots of tahini, random flours, a ton of spices — but I was also still acquiring ingredients for recipe testing. This led to a few kitchen sink dishes like the enchiladas, sourdough crackers, and a veggie tahini dip.
But I was also baking. I bake like a person who is a cook, meaning I understand there are rules but I’d prefer to not be bound by them. (I also hate the inefficiency and extra dishes that come from scooping flour into measuring cups and measuring with volume. Give me a digital scale any day and every day.)
I made a few decent batches of brownies, but the real winner were the cookies I’m sharing with you today, with a combination of ingredients that sort of came to me in a fever dream: oatmeal, molasses, ginger, and coconut.
They’re meant to be paired with rum, though of course, all our rum was gone by the time I made them. They’re also not my ideal cookie — yet — but I’m sharing this version anyway. As written, they are still quite tasty: chewy, not-too-sweet, and plenty of ginger kick from both powdered and crystallized ginger. (For the powdered ginger, I used Diaspora Co.’s Makhir Ginger, which lent a faint banana note — again, perfect for rum.)
Also, they’re vegan!
I used quick oats leftover from testing a pancake recipe, which contributed to the chewy factor. Next time I’ll reduce the oats, or maybe blend them to make oat flour, because I want them to be a bit more crisp on the edges, with a texture closer to a chipless chocolate chip cookie* — that is, still chewy, but not chewy like an oatmeal cookie.
Why bother with oats if I don’t want the chew? Mostly because I needed to use them up, to be honest, but also because I like their flavor and oatmeal cookies are one of my favorites types of cookies.
The next time I bake these I’ll also have high altitude to contend with. It’s not terribly complicated and I’ve read up on the basics, but it feels like there will be a slight learning curve until I can cook or bake without needing to reassure myself with a flurry of googling first.
*It’s a thing! My sister made them for me when we were little, and I’m quite pleased that I’m not the only one who knows their greatness.
I adapted this recipe from the Quaker classic, Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, which started appearing on the bottom of the lid in the ‘90s. Since we also had a lot of molasses to use up (and because molasses cookies are another favorite), I used quite a bit here, supplementing with just a little granulated sugar. The molasses also serves as an ode to rum since — as Israel Meléndez Ayala writes in part one of two on rum history and colonial narrative for Sourced — enslaved sugar plantation laborers found that molasses (a byproduct of making sugar) could be fermented and distilled.
You’ll see reduced aquafaba (aka the strained liquid from cooked chickpeas, whether homemade or canned) in the ingredients. I usually boil it on the stove until it’s reduced by a third, a trick I learned from Zsu Dever’s book Aquafaba. I love eggs, but when a baked good doesn’t really need an egg to provide protein or structure, then I like to use aquafaba and save the eggs for where they really shine (fried, scrambled, etc.). If you want to use eggs instead of aquafaba, though, use 2 large ones; if the dough seems dry, add a tablespoon or so of milk.
And if you need a digital scale recommendation, I like mine.
Oatmeal ginger molasses coconut cookies
280 grams rolled oats (quick or old-fashioned)
120 grams spelt flour (I used a whole spelt from Migrash; results may vary depending on the flour)
30 grams sweetened, shredded coconut
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
35 grams shortening (or use butter or plant butter)
60 grams coconut butter
2 teaspoons ground ginger
50 grams granulated sugar
167 grams molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup reduced aquafaba, whisked until slightly fluffy
40 grams crystallized ginger, chopped
Whisk together the oats, spelt flour, shredded coconut, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
Melt the shortening and coconut butter in the microwave in a 4-cup glass measuring cup or in a saucepan on the stove, then whisk in the ground ginger while the fat is still hot. Add the granulated sugar, molasses, and vanilla, whisk, then use a sturdy spoon to stir in the aquafaba.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with your spoon until no dry streaks remain. Fold in the crystallized ginger. Cover and chill the dough for at least 2 hours or up to several days.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet (or two, depending on how many cookies you’re baking now) with silicone or parchment. You can make the cookies as little or big as you want — I used the King Arthur orange cookie scoop, which is roughly equivalent to using a dining teaspoon.
Position 1 inch apart on the baking sheet(s) and bake on the middle rack for about 10 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies. Bake in batches if needed.
Yield: I forgot to check! The original recipe makes about 4 dozen, so that’s what I’d estimate here.
A few housekeeping things:
Writing this newsletter once a week at the beginning of the year was fun (read: challenging), but I’m scaling it back to every other week. Everyone gets too much email anyway, amirite?
I have a few ideas up my sleeves (including sourdough gooey butter cake and a chat with mushroom growing + wine making friends) but if you have any requests, let me know.
Also, I updated my website to better reflect what I’m up to now. Take a look and if you know someone who needs a writer, editor, or recipe tester…send me their way?
And yes, the title of this week’s newsletter is probably a metaphor.