Vegan Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
I’m not vegan myself, but I know people who are or have been vegan or close to vegan. I completely support the choice and might do it myself one day, so I try to do my part to make veganism not sound to most people like a hostile, alien foodscape.
I advocate by making delicious vegan desserts for gatherings I am invited to. Vegan friends, who often have a difficult time finding delicious things to eat without cooking themselves, love it. Omnivores, at least the ones who know most desserts are based on eggs and butter, are generally impressed and a little less inclined to say, “You’re vegan? But what do you eat?”
Sorbet, Oreos, and not many others desserts are vegan without trying. For the rest, adapting recipes can be tricky or involve uncommon ingredients. It’s important to practice (yay!) because you don’t want to say you will make delicious vegan banana bread for a gathering and then accidentally make vegan banana bread with a squishy middle that makes people never want to try anything vegan ever again.
Which is a strange sentiment if you think about it. I have a friend who got an organic muffin once that molded overnight on the counter and doesn’t like to buy anything organic now. One bad experience with vegan or organic food shouldn’t turn you off to a whole world of great food.
I made these (easy) Vegan Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies today to test them, so I would be able to whip out the recipe again next time I need to impress someone with how awesome vegan food is. And they are awesome. My plan is working.
Vegan Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies (adapted from a PostPunkKitchen recipe.)
1 1/3 cups sugar (I used a combo of brown and organic white)
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup Earth Balance buttery spread (or another 1/3 cup canola oil)
2 tbsp. molasses
1 cup cooked, mashed pumpkin
2 tsp. vanilla extract (I make my own for cheap!)
At this point, it will behoove you to dump everything in a bowl and use a hand blender if you have one. I often make recipes with freshly cooked pumpkin and if I want them to come out smooth, I blend all the wet ingredients using my beloved hand blender. Otherwise, the pumpkin stays a little stringy and can have lumps. Lumps generally don’t help in the vegan food is good for omnivores argument, but if you’re not going to blend electronically, mash as best you can and hand beat the above ingredients together. Then, add:
2 cups flour (I used 1 cup unbleached white, 1/2 cup whole wheat, and 1/2 cup millet)
1 1/3 cups rolled oats
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
Combine everything and you’ve got the batter. You can leave out any of the spices you don’t have on hand, but trust me, the coriander is amazing. Now, the best thing to do is wait a few hours or overnight before baking. This is the secret to really good cookies of almost any kind. But it’s hard, so wait as long as you can, and then preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Ungreased would probably be fine, but I happened to have greased my cookie sheet because I was going to use it for something else, so I can’t vouch for ungreased. Bake for about 10 minutes, but keep a close eye. Feel free, of course, to try adding vegan chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, etc.
