Vegan Oatmeal Raisin cookies

I have been making these cookies for My family's Christmas dinner for the past three years. I love adding healthy vegan snacks and dessert options because staying healthy even for dessert is vitally important. Being healthy during the holidays is extra important because everyone needs more energy to do all the Christmas shopping  and cooking. Food is energy, when you are eating food that is processed and low in nutrients, this will make you feel tired and not working at your fullest potential. This is because there is no nutrition in processed food so your body does not have much to work with therefore making you feel slower and sleepy. Good news, these vegan cookies will add nutrition to your diet and also be the best tasting cookies that are healthy. What can be better than that?!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 and 1/2 cups (144g) Rolled Oats
• 1 cup (125g) All Purpose Flour
• 1 cup (80g) Dried Unsweetened Coconut (dessicated)
• 1/2 cup Raisins
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 cup (200g) Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup (112g) Vegan Butter
• 3 Tbsp Maple Syrup
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Tbsp coconut milk or almond milk
• 1 Tbs Chia seeds (Make it extra healthy)
• 1 Tbs Hemp seeds (add natural protein)

• INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. Add the rolled oats, flour, coconut, baking soda, salt and cinnamon to a mixing bowl and mix together.
3. Cream the vegan butter and brown sugar together and then add the syrup and vanilla.
4. Then mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients by hand. Stirring until the mixture is very crumbly.
5. Add the soy milk and mix in. Check if you can roll some of it into a ball – it should be sticky enough to do so. It will still be crumbly and look almost as if it’s still too dry, but when you try and make a ball you’ll find it’s also very sticky. If it’s still too crumbly, add a tiny bit more soy milk until it’s sticky enough to roll into balls. When rolling into balls, you’ll find that you’re more pressing them into balls than rolling, this is fine, press into a ball and then roll a bit to make it nice and round and even.
6. Place the rolled balls onto a parchment lined baking tray.
7. Bake for 15 minutes. The edges should be firm and the tops lightly browned. They will be soft but will firm up while cooling.
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to wire cooling rack to cool completely.