Oatmeal Cocoa Cookies

When you first bite into one of these cookies, you will take another bite, then another one, then another until your finished that cookie. Then you will go back for more! This is another recipe me and my sister made from scratch when we were looking for alternative snacks to satisfy the sweet tooth. It was trial and error, but it all deliciously came together in the end.

The main ingredients in these cookies are oatmeal and cocoa, so go ahead and munch guilt free. The very first time we made these cookies, they were delicious but the main problem was that they were a bit dry. Instead of adding more butter, we experimented with adding purred plum to the batter. We then got a deliciously moist cookie. I encourage you to try substituting butter with pureed fruit. I found this site really helpful when deciding how to substitute butter in this recipe. So far it’s worked great. We also experimented with pureed pear and I find it works a bit better, probably due to its fluffier texture when pureed.

Then we went on experimenting with ground vs. whole rolled oats. This part was a bit tricky, as it messed with the texture of the cookies. I then found this great oatmeal cookie recipe from Smitten Kitchen. We had all our ingredients picked out but we used this recipe as a template to help us out. The recipe from Smitten Kitchen also gave us the idea of putting in a bit of cinnamon to the batter. She used 1/2 teaspoon, we used 1 teaspoon. What a difference it made to the flavor! It was just enough cinnamon to compliment the cocoa, not to overpower the whole cookie.

These cookies are great to eat alone, without any topping. But, a little chocolate never hurt anyone.  We made a very simple ganache to go with these cookies. We used semi-sweet chocolate and almond milk. Make as much as you like, but keep the ratio of chocolate to milk 4:1. If you don’t fancy using almond milk, use any other kind you like, or just leave it out. However I recommend thinning out the chocolate because it makes for a very rich, creamy and mousse-like ganache. And of course, we added some unsweetened shredded coconut on top because coconut who doesn’t like coconut?

Ingredients:

• 1  1/4 cup  Ground Rolled oats (or Oatmeal Flour)
• 1/2 cup  Whole Rolled Oats
• 1/4 cup  Cocoa Powder
• 1/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 cup  Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 cup Pureed Pear
• 3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
• 2 tablespoons Melted Butter
• 1 tablespoon Honey
• 1/2 cup Unsweetened Shredded Coconut

Chocolate Ganache:   ***Ratio of chocolate to milk – 4:1

• Semi-sweet Chocolate
• Almond Milk (or any other milk you prefer)
• Unsweetened Shredded Coconut

Bake at 300-325˚F for about 10 minutes

Makes 14-16 cookies

1. In a medium bowl, mix: 1/ 1/4 cup of ground rolled oats, 1/2 cup of whole rolled oats, 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the egg. Mix in 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1/4 cup of pear puree, 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 2 tablespoon of melted butter and 1 tablespoon of honey.
3. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture and mix well until all is incorporated, but do not over mix.
4. Finally, mix in 1/2 of unsweetened shredded coconut.
5. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Scoop out even amounts of cookie dough, leaving a couple of inches in between each scoop. I used an ice-cream scooper, but you could use a tablespoon or your hands!
6. Flatten each ball of dough with a lightly greased fork, length and width wise.
7. Bake at 300-325˚F, depending on your oven (mine gets hot, so I baked them at 300˚F) for about 10 minutes, or until the cookie centers have just started to firm. They firm up more after you take them out, so be careful not to over bake. Transfer cookies onto a plate to cool.
8. To make the chocolate ganache: In a double boiler, melt the chocolate thoroughly and stir in the almond milk.
9. Remove chocolate mixture from heat and drizzle over the cooled cookies. Sprinkle some coconut on top if you like.
10. Cover the cookies with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or so.

Enjoy! Keep covered and refrigerated.