Cookies Times Two... and Mylk.

For some time I've been wanting to bake some cookies for the bf - good cookies are so expensive I think, and really I'm thinking they should be easy to bake. I wanted to bake them with oatmeal and without too much flour as I am using the same rice-/buckwheat flour as I do for my own cookies - after baking with wheat flour for other people and realising just how impossible it is to contain, I am not willingly using gluten flours in my kitchen again.

A couple of recipes I tried weren't as perfect as I'd hoped, but it's nice sometimes to bake for other people rather than just me so I'm not letting up. At Peas and Thank You I found Soft-Baked Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I don't have margarine so I used coconut oil, but besides from that and the flour replacement I followed it pretty much to the letter and they were well received. I halved the recipe and got maybe seven nice cookies.

Well, it's a joy to bake for others but that pleasure only goes so far, so I baked up a batch for myself at the same time. No oatmeal for me so I didn't dare go with the same recipe - I tried overnight oats too a couple of times and I have to admit buckwheat flakes just don't always cut it for me. Buckwheat is fine - for some things. The basis for my cookies was Banana Apricot Spelt Oatmeal Cookies from Angela at Oh She Glows, which would now be Banana Goji Berry Rice Buckwheat Cookies. I know from all the comments I've read for oatmeal cookies that I'm not the only one looking for alternatives: this recipe works with buckwheat flakes for oats, and rice flour and almond pulp or rice protein for flour. I used the flax egg rather than egg, and goji berries in stead of apricot and plenty - plenty! - of cinnamon. The first ones I had straight from the oven then I freeze them - it stops them from getting dry and I can thaw them slightly in the microwave which makes them nicely warm.

Since cookies and milk go so well together I'll mention right away that I just tried making pumpkin seed mylk. I was a little bit sceptical that it might come out as green as the seeds but Gena's gorgeous and unmistakeably milk-like photos at Choosing Raw convinced me . This is a really good idea. It is nutty, smooth and delish, perhaps even a new favourite - my usual is almond milk. I used only one date an no stevia - ugh, I shudder at the mere word... - as I use my mylk for granola and don't like it too sweet. Also, I had to strain it as my blender takes only three cups of water and the following morning after sitting in the fridge it came out in big ketchup-y burps. However, before I strained it I used one cup as substitute for yoghurt in a recipe which was absolutely perfect.