A heaping plate of my latest recipe, this will be my regular oatmeal/apple/raisin cookie procedure.. Recipe: 4 cups oatmeal 1 1/4 cup flour+bakingsoda 1 cup white sugar 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup butter (two sticks)softened 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspooon salt 1/4 cup honey 4-6 apples, skinned, cored, shredded 3 eggs 1/4 tbspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cup raisins (sunmade prefered) 1 1/2 cup crushed pecans Dry preparation: Mix sugars together in a bowl set aside. Mix flour,cinnamon,nutmeg,salt together in bowl set aside. Pre heat oven to 375 f Wet preparation: First, we want to pre bake the apples. This allows them to carmelize partially before being baked in the cookies, this reduces the water content of the cookies and ensures that they bake up to be extremely moist. Grate apples into short strips and add them to a ready baking tray, I use a pyrex pan but it doesn't matter. Distribute apple strips in pan evenly and dust with cinnamon and nutmeg. Cover entire pan with a sheet of aluminum foil and place in the oven for 35 to 45 minutes or until the apple flesh breaks down and the sauce starts to brown. When done remove from oven and set aside. Now to start the mix: Crack 3 eggs into bowl, add vanilla, honey stir together slightly Add butter into mixing bowl(plastic prefered) cream using spoon or electric mixer(prefered) Add sugar and mix until creamy Add eggs mixture and continue to blend smooth. Add in flour mixture until smooth and no lumps Start sifting in oatmeal, mix to desired consistency. Lots of mixing makes cake like cookies, less mixing makes more chewy and bumpy cookies(my preference) Sift in raisins and pecans(prefer to hand mix this so as not to crush the raisins with the mixer) Finally, add the prebaked apples and their carmelized sauce to the batter..make sure you select a mixing bowl large enough for the complete mix, there will be a sizable amount of batter. Let batter sit for a few minutes. Reduce oven temp to 350. Get cookie sheets ready, if you are using the regular "non stick" type grease them. If you have silicone bake sheets rinse them off and start spooning out your cookies. Bake cookies for 16 - 22 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Take out, cool, remove from sheet and enjoy! This batch makes from 40 - 50 medium sized cookies.

Made these tonight. I sort of threw together some stuff in an experiment. YUMMY! They taste good. I doubt that people who have high fat, non vegan diets would enjoy them though. But I thought they were a healthy sort of treat. 2 1/2 CUPS WHOLE WHEAT PASTRY FLOUR (SIFTED) 1 TSP ALUMINUM FREE BAKING POWDER 1 TSP BAKING SODA 3/4 TSP SEA SALT 1/3 CUP OLIVE OIL (FOR IT'S HEALTHY MONOSATURATED FAT AND OMEGA-3S) 1/3 CUP NON SWEETENED APPLESAUCE 1/3 CUP HONEY 2/3 CUP OF SPLENDA (HEALTHLY VERSION = NATURAL CANE SUGAR INSTEAD) 1/2 CUP SILKEN TOFU 1/2 BANANA 1 TSP CORNSTARCH 2 TBSP VANILLA EXTRACT 2 CUPS ROLLED OATS 8 TBSP ORGANIC VEGAN CHOCOLATE CHIPS Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place rack in middle of oven. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cornstarch into a bowl and set aside. In a food processor, add oil, applesauce, sugar, honey, tofu, banana and vanilla. Pulse into a consistency much like a regular cookie dough would be before the flour is added. Transfer mixture into a bowl and slowly stir in the dry flour mixture. When combined and smooth, add the rolled oats and chocolate chips. Spoon one inch balls onto cookie sheets. Cook for 9 minutes (10 minutes if not using Splenda) Recipe should make about 68 cookies. NUTRIONAL INFO PER COOKIE: 52.6 calories / 1.7g fat / .8g mono fat / 8.7g carbohydrates / .9g fiber / 1.1g protein Maybe only half the calories of Nestle Tollhouse cookies, but lots more fiber and protein! Plus the have fruit and omega-3 fat, so they are actually HEALTHY to be eating!