Tree Pruning Inspired Cookies

April 2, 2012 by Carmen 11 Comments

Our lemon tree was out of control.  And for some reason, so were the dogs, the kid and the neighborhood interruptions.  It’s election time and campaigners love to stop by right when I’m up to my elbows in stress.  And no, you may not hang a huge red sign for someone I don’t like on my fence.

Obviously I needed sweets after a whole morning of politic-avoiding-tree-pruning-dog-chasing-kid-saving.

But it was hot and I didn’t want to turn on the oven, so No-Bake Cookies it is!

These are kind of grown-up version of regular no-bake cookies- they are not super sweet and don’t use three pounds of sugar.  I also added coconut which makes them feel really fancy, even though it only took about 15 minutes total to make these.

Vegan No Bake Cookies (adapted from All Recipes.com)

2/3 cup agave syrup or maple syrup

1/4 cup vegetable oil

5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

About 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Put the oil, cocoa, syrup and cinnamon in a small pot and heat on medium until it is boiling.  It will change color- boil for 3 minutes.  Use a timer because it’s important it boil this long.

And boiling…with bubbles!

Remove from heat.  It is good to have your peanut butter, oatmeal and vanilla pre-measured so you can dump it right in.  Add peanut butter first, melt it all, then add vanilla and finally oats.  Mix well.  If you are using coconut, toss some in now.

Scoop out and put on wax paper.  I used a little coffee measure to make them nicely rounded and to control the size….my cookies tend to get bigger and bigger as I scoop them!

While they are still warm, roll them around in a bit of coconut on the wax paper.  And in the pastel-color-Easter spirit I squished some dark chocolate M & Ms into the tops.  Stick ’em in the fridge for an hour for firmer texture, or just eat them right away.  Depends how stressful your morning has been.

Now the tree is pruned, dogs are quiet, child is safe, campaigners are gone and all is right in the world again.  Enjoy!