VEGAN peanut butter and coconut oatmeal cookies

Peanut butter is soooo yummmmyy.  Can you believe I hated it as a kid?

It was so thick, creamy, and clung and stuck to the roof of my mouth like no tomorrow.
But now, I am guilty of buying jars and jars of peanut butter and stashing them at home.
How can you not when there are so many different kinds at the supermarket?

After months of hearing my dad complain about my jars taking up all the room in the fridge, I set out on a mission to find a cookie recipe to try to use up some of the PB.

On the day I decide to bake however, my flour had already expired and there was none left in my pantry.  Still keen to bake, I remembered we had oatmeal at home (for my mom's breakfast every morning).  I took my trusty blender and pulsed the rolled oats into a fine oat flour, and substituted it for all purpose flour.

Therefore, these cookies are GLUTEN FREE totally by accident, so good news if you are gluten-intolerant!

Also, I recently stumbled across a few vegan youtubers and have been watching their videos, so I wanted to see if I could make some tasty vegan cookies too.

Since it is quite hard to screw up cookies with the usual butter, eggs...etc., I was up for the challenge.

A recipe that doesn't harm animals at the same time?  Win win! :)

INGREDIENTS (yields around 24-26 cookies):

Prep time: 25mins

Baking time: 15-20mins

Dry

250g      rolled oats (or oat flour if you have it already)

3/4tsp    baking powder

1/2tsp    baking soda

3/4tsp    cinnamon

1/2tsp    salt

50g        shredded coconut (optional)

Wet

1/2cup   coconut oil

3/4cup   peanut butter (of your choice)

100g      coconut sugar

75g        brown sugar

1/2cup   cashew milk (or any other non-dairy milk)

All the main ingredients you will need!

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (around 375 degrees Fahrenheit)

2. Use any blender or food processor to blend the rolled oats into a fine powder

3. Mix all the ingredients from the "Dry" list together

4. In a bigger bowl, mix together the ingredients from the "Wet" list

5. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients

6. Mix it together with a spatula

7. It should look something like this!

8. Since these cookies are quite delicate, I have learned that it is best to shape them into 1-inch balls

9. Sprinkle additional salt and coconut sugar on top before baking

10. Bake in the oven for around 15 mins, take out and let it cool down

11. Transfer to a storage box/plate if you're eating it right away!

So so easy to make and yummy too!!!

These cookies are quite forgiving, so even if you over bake them slightly, it won't be too dry.

BUT I'm not saying go ahead and bake them for an hour and still expect them to be soft and moist hahaha...you know what I mean.

You can definitely use this recipe as a cookie base and then add in chocolate chips/dried fruit or nuts...get creative!!!

Let me know if you try it out, tag me on instagram @maxinechann!