They say baking is a precise art, but nothing in my kitchen is precise. I bake the way I cook, glance at a recipe to get an idea and then start putting things together until they are the way I want them. Most of the time it works. Sometimes I fail but sometimes I come up with something good enough to document so I can put it in my 3 ring recipe binder and forget about forever.
I had a little extra time this evening, which is a rare thing. The boy child was enjoying what was possibly the last nice day of fall and my man was working late in the shop downstairs. I thought it would be nice to have some of his favorite Oatmeal Raisin cookies ready when he was done but I soon realized I didn't have any raisins... or butter... or eggs... and only 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Hmmm...
What I did have was 2 mushy bananas, a freezer full of apples from our woods and some dried cranberries. I combined my favorite oatmeal raisin cookie recipe from Paula Deen with the ingredients I had on hand, a glass of wine in the other hand, and a "devil may care" attitude and ended up with a pretty darn good (and healthy) cookie. Because there is no butter and very little sugar they didn't spread like cookies usually do. They almost have the texture of a muffin. Maybe next time I'll try them in a muffin pan and see what happens.
Ingredients:
2 over-ripe bananas
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup rice milk (or any substitute)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp ground flax
1 cup diced apples
3 cups flour or GF all purpose baking flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups old fashioned oats
2 tsp cinnamon, apple pie spice or any combination of cinnamon, ginger, clove, allspice
1 cup dried cranberries
*walnuts would be a nice addition but my kiddo is allergic
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Peel and mash bananas in a mixing bowl. Add apple sauce, vanilla, rice milk, brown sugar and flax. Stir well. Add apples & combine.
In a separate bowl combine all other ingredients.
Stir together wet & dry ingredients. Add a little more flour or oats if it's too wet.
Drop spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen. Yummy.
