Spiced Oatmeal Cookies

prep time: 15 minutes plus 30 minutes rest timecook time: 11 - 13 minutesservings: about 12 - 16 cookies

During autumn and winter, these are my absolute favorite cookies. The spices and tender center just give me a warm fuzzy feeling when it is cold outside, and you just want to cuddle up on the sofa with a blanket and a good book. The recipe is based on Cookie and Kate´s take on spiced oatmeal cookies but my cookies somehow always spread out way too much in the oven. This might just be down to the different brands of ingredients or the conversion from cups to grams. So I tweaked the recipe and now I find that the cookies hold their shape quite well.

When looking for recipes online I rather found it always annoying when I needed special equipment. This in case you will need oatmeal flour, it is an essential part of this recipe. I make my oatmeal flour myself, by grinding small batches of coarse oats in an electric coffee grinder. A couple of pulses and you have a finely milled consistency. These little tools are also great for freshly grinding spices, besides obviously grinding coffee. Just make sure to clean the machine thoroughly after each use. If you do quite a bit of baking I would recommend you to invest in a coffee grinder, Amazon usually has a couple of good deals going on and you can find one for quite cheap (about 15 Euros). However, you can now also find oatmeal flour in well-assorted supermarkets or health food shops and of course Amazon, for about 3 Euros.

The recipe calls for one egg. Should you not have an egg or do not want to use eggs, you can substitute it by using what is widely known ass "flax seed egg". Grind 1 table spoon of flex seeds in your grinder of choice and mix the powder with 3 table spoons of water. Set to the side for 15 minutes and simply substitute for the egg in the recipe instructions. To make this recipe vegan, swap the butter for your favorite vegetable margarine.

So, let's actually get to baking. Start of with mixing the oat flour, whole wheat flour, coarse oats, spices, salt as well as baking powder and soda together in a bowl. I like to use quite a healthy amount of spices, especially cinnamon, so these cookies are quite strongly flavored. Also, make sure that you use freshly grated nutmeg, the pre-ground stuff cannot keep up with the real deal! You can add or substitute spices to your liking, I have done these with homemade pumpkin spice, which was delicious too.

With your hand or stand mixer cream together the room temperature butter and the coconut sugar in a separate large bowl until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes on medium to high speed. Add the egg (or flax seed egg) and mix well. Next, add in the vanilla extract, almond butter (optional) and maple syrup and mix until combined.

Add your dry ingredients little by little to the bowl, mixing on low speed until just combined to avoid the flours from dusting up too much.

Make sure to scrape of the sides and pour mixture onto plastic wrap, wrapping it tightly. Leave it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to one hour. This will help the cookies not spread out too much while baking.

Prep a baking sheet with parchment paper and form small dough balls out of your chilled dough, roughly the size of ping pong balls. Gently press the dough ball into a rough, disk-like shape. Place them on the baking sheet, making sure to leave enough space between the cookies. I usually put 4 x 3 dough balls on one baking sheet. During that time, preheat your oven to 165 degrees Celsius, on the circulating air program.

I usually bake the cookies for about 11 to 13 minutes, until the edges have slightly browned and crisped but the center is still soft. The cookies will keep baking on the baking tray after you have pulled them out of oven, so the center will be cooked through but will still remain creamy and tender. Leave them on the baking sheet for about 5 to 10 minutes, until they have firmed up enough, so they can be transferred to a cooling rack to cool down completely.

I prefer to eat them fresh after they have completely cooled, or slightly warm, but you can store them for up to a couple of weeks in a container. In my house, they usually never last that long. I use metal boxes to store them at room temperature. Be advised that they will soften up on the outside when stored this way. Once you have measured out your ingredients, these cookies are just so easy to throw together, and they make a great gift or go well with a cup of coffee as a small treat. To be honest, I can never only eat one but two already help me to satisfy me sweet tooth.