Breakfast Cookies (CEIMB)

Today I'm pleased to announce a new feature on this blog. You see, I am now a proud member of Craving Ellie in my Belly, a blog made up of a group of food bloggers paying homage to the lovely and talented Ellie Krieger every Thursday. Each week a different one of Ms. Krieger's recipes is chosen, and the food bloggers all post about it on Thursdays and compare notes.

This week is my first week participating, and the recipe was Ellie's Breakfast Cookies. The idea of cookies for breakfast sounds somewhat unorthodox, but think about it people - we eat croissants, muffins, scones, and even donuts and call them breakfast. This cookie is far more nutritious and excusable! Just wait until you see the ingredients.

I tweaked it a bit to make it even *more* healthy, if that's possible - I substituted honey for the refined sugar, and used all whole wheat pastry flour instead of part whole wheat and part regular. I made a couple of other changes that were just matters of preference. What results is the version of the recipe that I've posted below, which produces gorgeous, soft oatmeal raisin cookies with a hint of spice and a whole lot of wholesome goodness.

Breakfast Cookies
adapted from Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger (2007)
makes 12 cookies*

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1/4 cup unsweetened, all natural applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup bran cereal flakes
1/3 cup raisins

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350, and line a cookie sheet with parchment or silpat liner.

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. Combine butter, oil, and honey in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on high speed until well combined, about 1 minute. Add egg, applesauce, and vanilla and beat an additional 30 seconds.

3. Add flour mixture and beat an additional 30 seconds. Add oats, flakes, and raisins and mix over low speed just until incorporated. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of batter per cookie onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving a couple of inches between cookies. (An ice cream scoop filled about halfway is a good measure for the batter).

4. Bake for 12 minutes, until fragrant but still soft. Let cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

*I made only 9 cookies because I was greedy with the batter.

Enjoy!