Life-Changing Vegan Thumbprint Cookies

By mahto

These vegan friendly cookies are a hit with anyone and everyone, they're mmm-mm good!

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole almonds or other nut like walnuts, pecans, or pistachios
• 4 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1 cup canola oil or melted coconut oil
• 1 cup maple syrup
• Assorted jams of your choice (see note)

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat.

In a food processor, pulse the nuts until they are chopped into smallish pieces. It's OK if you have a variety of sizes, just don't grind them to a flour. I tend to leave them chunkier than most people because I like to bite into a decent piece of nut when eating these cookies. But you can grind them pretty fine, too. Transfer the chopped nuts into a large bowl.

Using the same food processor bowl, grind the oats with the salt into a coarse meal. Again, I like to leave a little texture in the oats. Transfer the oats to the bowl with the nuts, then add 1 1/4 cup of flour, reserving the remaining 1/4 cup.

Pour the oil into the bowl, followed by the maple syrup. (Doing it in this order, and using the same measuring cup, means that all the maple syrup will glide out effortlessly.)

Mix with a wooden spoon until combined. If the dough seem runny, add the additional flour but don't worry if it is too soft, as it will stiffen up a bit as it sits. I usually let it sit for about 15 minutes.

Form the dough into rough balls about the size of a whole walnut. The dough will be slightly wet but surprisingly not too sticky. You may want to use one of those cookie-sized ice-cream scoops if you have one (I don't). The cookies can be fairly close together as they don't spread much.

Using the back of a round 1/2 teaspoon measure, make an indentation in the top of each cookie. Wipe the spoon clean and use it to fill the indentation with your jam of choice.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the cookies begin to brown slightly. Remove from oven and let cool for about 15 minutes before moving to a rack to cool further (they're a bit fragile when they first come out of the oven).