I’m feeling a huge sense of relief today. Yesterday I handed in a 13-page paper and officially finished my last assignment besides a final exam for my Political Psychology course. It’s funny given how much I love school how relieved I always am at the end of a semester. Suddenly my evenings are looking so free, ready to be filled with recreational reading, cookbook perusing, painting, catching up on making photo books of my family, and, obviously, blogging!
Haha, I say that every time a semester ends, yet those photo books still aren’t caught up, those paintings still aren’t finished, I still have cookbooks I’ve barely cracked…it’s a good thing I love having a to-do list perpetually on the go!
One thing I know I finally have time for is telling you about these cookies I made a couple weeks ago! We eat an obscene amount of cookies around here, so at least some of them have to be healthy. These deliver on health factor and definitely don’t slack on real cookie taste and chewy texture, and we love them around here.
Have a great weekend, friends, and tell me…what’s one thing you always put off on your to-do list?
- 1 cup mixed dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, apples, cherries…whatever you like!)
- ⅓ cup ground flax seeds, wheat germ, or wheat bran
- 1 cup milk
- 2½ cups quick cooking rolled oats
- 1½ cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
- 1¼ cups packed brown sugar (I prefer dark brown sugar in these)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ½ cup white chocolate chips (optional)
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or grease lightly; set aside.
- Chop any large pieces of dried fruit. Stir fruit and flax seeds into milk and set aside (this plumps the fruit and helps prevent it from absorbing moisture from the cookies and drying them out).
- In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla until creamy. Stir in oat mixture, alternately with milk mixture, making 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of milk. Stir in white chocolate chips.
- Drop heaping tablespoons of batter onto prepared cookie sheet about 2” apart and flatten slightly. Bake for 14-15 minutes, until golden around the edges and still soft in the centre. Let cool on pan for 2 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or freeze for longer storage.
*Source: adapted from Dairy Goodness
To-do lists are supposed to be chronically growing entities (I hope!).
These cookies look fabulous! I’d sweep the “health” right out of them though, by eating the entire batch – or, more likely, the dough. :O
Congrats on your paper, Anna! These cookies look so super delicious! Hope you had a fabulous weekend!
Ha. I figured when I was on mat leave I would get so much done as well. bahaha.
I need some healthier cookies in my health, these would definitely do.
Congrats on finishing your paper! Great job! The cookies are fantastic!! I would love one right now!!
cleaning out the fridge :P
Ugh, that is definitely one of mine too – thanks for reminding me, that wasn’t even on the list yet :)