Chocolate Chunk Oat Cookies

I had an impromptu dinner party last night when my vegan friend Nathan came around and cooked me and my housemates an amazing vegan sweet potato shepherd’s pie, which was a real treat as I am usually the one who cooks. I couldn’t let him do all the work though so I offered to make a vegan dessert. Although cookies may not be the traditional dinner party dessert, in my opinion a crunchy, chocolaty cookie dipped in a good cup of Earl Grey tea is the perfect sweet to end a delicious meal. These cookies were crunchy like Maryland cookies, so if you are looking for the chewy, gooey kind then this isn’t the recipe for you. If you like a good dipper [for tea or coffee] however then they were PERFECT!

1 tbsp Ground Flax + 3 tbsp Water
50g Coconut Oil
50g Brown Sugar
100g Oat Flour (blend whole oats of you have a blender)
50g Almond Butter (or choice of nut butter – peanut or hazelnut will work well)
50g Dark Chocolate
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Fine Grain Sea Salt

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/ 350ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, mix together the ground flax with the water and set aside so it can thicken up.
In a blender, mixer or in a mixing bowl, combine the coconut oil, sugar, almond butter, flax and water and vanilla extract.
Mix in the oat flour, baking powder and sea salt.
Chop the chocolate into small rough chunks and fold into the cookie dough.
Roll into balls about 1 inch in diameter and place on the baking sheet. Flatten them slightly, although they will spread a little when cooking.
Bake for around 15 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes then transfer them to a rack to cool completely. They will harden once cooled.