JACKPOT makes: Chewy Cranberry & Pecan Spelt Cookies

Hello dear readers!

I hope you all have had a good weekend! My weekend consisted of baking, eating and then more baking and eating. I’m glad I played a lot of sport this weekend as now I feel a little less guilty for indulging in so much food over the past few days ;P.

On Saturday morning, I was in the mood to make some cookies. I’m always making numerous amounts of muffins and cakes on a frequent basis and as I was seeing Miss S that night, I wanted to bring her some freshly baked goods as gift so it provided me with the perfect opportunity to bake. Mr M bought me a recipe book for my birthday recently called “The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur” by Kelly Peloza, so I couldn’t help but browse through the recipe book to get some good ideas. After much thought, I decided to make an oatmeal type cookie. On my recent trip down to Melbourne, I purchased some cranberry and pecan spelt cookies from Phillippa’s which I really liked as the taste and texture was just how I like my cookies. I thought I would replicate these cookies based on what I remember them to taste like but with my own added healthy twist to them. I took a basic oatmeal cookie recipe I found in the book and tweaked it to recreate the taste and texture of the cookies that I was so fond of eating.

Ingredients I used:

1 Cup of White Spelt Flour
1/2 Cup of Chopped Pecans (You can add more pecans if you like your cookies to be more nutty in texture)
1 Cup of Rolled Oats
1 Cup of Dried Cranberries (You can reduce this amount as I thought that 1 cup was too much. Next time I will reduce it to half a cup)
1 Tsp of Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp of Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp of Salt
1/3 cup of soy milk
1/4 Cup of melted Coconut Oil (you can add more if the batter is too dry)
1/4 Cup of Dark Agave Nectar
1.5 tsp of Pure Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl (except for the dried cranberries) and then in a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until incorporated. Portion out the mixture onto a lined baking tray. I made big and small cookies but you can make uniform cookies to whatever size you prefer your cookies to be. In my mindset, smaller cookies meant more indulgment and feeling less guilty ;P. I rolled my mixture into a small ball then flattened it with a fork so that it would get a more even colour once baked. Bake for approximately 10 minutes or more depending how crispy you like your cookie. If you like a chewier cookie, 10 minutes should be enough time in the oven to set the cookies. Once out of the oven, put them on a baking tray to cool. Ensure that you don’t eat them all in one go as tempting as it is!

What I like about these cookies is that there isn’t too much sweetness and that the sweetness comes from the agave and the dried cranberries. The cranberries and pecans give it more texture and crunch. Also, I liked the fact that these cookies don’t take long to make and that the baking time in the oven is only for a short amount of time to get that chewy texture. I was happy with the result of the cookie but next time I might flatten the cookie out a bit more as I wanted to obtain a more crisper edge to the cookies. They weren’t exactly like the cookies I purchased in Melbourne as they were a lot chewier but at least I didn’t feel too bad when eating them and Miss S seemed to like the cookies which was even better! I will have to try this recipe out again and see if I can make it even better next time. I’ll definitely be reducing the amount of cranberries as I think I went a little overboard when mixing in the cranberries into the mixture.

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