Vegan Baking: Pumpkin Spice Coconut Oat Cookies (Gluten-Free)

Pumpkin-Spiced, Coconut Oat Cookies (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

I decided to extend the three-week elimination diet, which should officially have come to an end tonight. As a result, I'm carrying on with my gluten-free, vegan baking sessions.

Vegan, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Cookies

For this week's sweet cravings I have made a small batch of soft, pumpkin-spiced coconut oat cookies, which will probably last me for the entire week ahead.

Vegan, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Cookies

The vegetable baking ingredient of the week is pumpkin (butternut squash, to be precise), which I borrowed from Pickle's stash. Since pumpkin is a staple in my cats' dinners, I always have squashes or pumpkins lying around; and I really enjoy using any stray pumpkin leftovers in baking recipes. So far, baking with squashes has always produced satisfactory results.

Vegan, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Cookies

My recipe for chewy, pumpkin-spiced coconut oat cookies contains no refined sugar, is gluten-free and takes a mere 90 minutes from start to finish, washing up included. Please note, as I'm a lover of pumpkin spice (mixed spice), I tend to use it quite liberally, and this recipe is no exception. Feel free to adjust spices and amounts as needed. 

Ingredients (for 12 medium-sized cookies)

• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water
• 250g cooked, pureed pumpkin 
• 1 tbsp molasses / black treacle
• 1 tbsp agave syrup
• 40g coconut sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 40g desiccated coconut
• 100g gluten -free oat flour 
• 50g gluten free oats 
• 70g of flame raisins
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda / bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp mixed spice / pumpkin spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp fresh ginger
• 
  

For the chocolate topping:

30g of dark chocolate

Preparation

• Preheat the oven to 160°C  / 320°F
• Peel and cook your pumpkin. Once cooked, mash the pumpkin into a puree with a fork.
• Prepare the flax egg and keep this in the fridge until later.
• Add the oatmeal, oats, desiccated coconut, coconut sugar, bicarbonate of soda, salt and dry spices into a food processor and blend for 30 secs / 1 minute until all ingredients are mixed together.
• Add fresh ginger,  agave syrup, molasses and raisins to the pumpkin, using a fairly large mixing bowl. 
• Add the oat / coconut flour mix to the wet ingredients. Mix together until well combined. Add the flax egg and continue mixing. At first the mix is likely to appear too dry. Do refrain from adding liquid (i.e. almond milk etc.) at this stage. By the time you have finished mixing the ingredients, the dough will be moist enough. Also, please refrain from putting the wet and dry mixes into the blender to combine, as this will decimate the flame raisins, which I think should be left intact.
• Use your hands to shape 12 equally sized balls from the dough and place on a baking tray, which has been lined with parchment paper. Press the dough balls gently into shape (to form a medium-sized, round cookie) and bake in the oven for ten minutes.
• Remove the cookies from the oven after 10 minutes and turn them over. Bake for another 10 - 15 minutes.
• Melt the dark chocolate gently in a water bath and drizzle over the cookies.
• Enjoy.

Vegan, gluten-free pumpkin spice cookies