Agave Oatmeal Cookies

A new favorite cookbook of mine is one that I found quite by accident, while casually perusing the cooking section of a large bookstore that I stopped in for only a few moments. I hardly had the time to jot down the title before I had to leave, and even though I wasn't able to look more closely through the book, it was obvious to me that it was a book that I would want to track down. Later, I did not even look at my note to see what the book was called; I had ingrained it in my memory over the course of the interceding hours. Baking with Agave Nectar is a book that I'm entirely unsurprised has been published, and thrilled that has been published now, as I'm not sure I would have bothered with it a couple of years ago.

Finally, when I borrowed the book from my local library, and I studied each recipe between the covers, I knew that I had found a real treasure. Not only do all of the sweet and savory treats in the book include the relatively healthful and natural sweetener agave nectar, the baked goods represent a more transcendent theme of wholesome baking, as evidenced by the continual use of ingredients such as whole wheat flour, flaxseed meal, and applesauce. It is no coincidence that these agave oatmeal cookies contain all of these things. The milk chocolate chips were, however, my own addition.

I made these cookies for my friends to enjoy after a long day of work in the garden, and they loved how they were not too sweet nor too heavy, and the applesauce paired with the agave nectar heightened the fruity notes under the oats.

Agave Oatmeal Cookies

From Baking with Agave Nectar

Yield: 30 cookies

Ingredients:
¼ cup applesauce
¾ cup light agave nectar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 ¾ cups rolled oats
¼ cup flaxseed meal
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. sea salt
¾ cup raisins
½ cup milk chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325° F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the applesauce and the agave nectar. Add the eggs 1 at a time and stir in vanilla extract.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, oats, flaxseed meal, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add to the agave nectar mixture and stir until combined. Fold in raisins and chocolate chips.
Drop the batter by tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets and bake for 12 minutes.