Autumn Spice Oatmeal Cookies

Well, it's been a long time. With that time, comes expectations that I put on myself for some epic blog post to mark my return to blogging. With those expectations, comes nerves. "Blank page syndrome" as a writer would see it, or "burning food and making crap syndrome" as I've seen it in the kitchen lately. I've been feeling more and more like I'm losing my touch, and my cooking-confidence has wilted slightly. Today, that changed with the anticipation of my favourite season: Autumn.

I had the biggest craving for a pumpkin spice muffin the other day, so I bought some pumpkin spice granola bars. They're tasty, but didn't really do it for me... I would normally be excited for the return of the pumpkin spice muffin from Starbucks, but having gone vegan means I won't be able to eat that now. I'm fine with that, their muffins aren't that healthy, which also plays into my commitment to eat as healthy as I can with the odd exception.

So now I'm here, writing this entry, and about to share with you my entry back into the realm of awesome homemade foodie delights. When baking these, your home will smell like a combination of Autumn, pumpkin pie (even though there's no pumpkin in this), and sweet-spicy heaven.

I had a big debate with myself on whether these should be called "cookies" or "bars". This debate was held while I devoured  one  two of them as a taste test...
Because of how soft and chewy they are, with a cookie texture, I guess it was an easy decision. So here's my happy experimental-gone-amazing recipe for a taste of Autumn in the kitchen! Enjoy! :)

Autumn Spice Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients: 
Dry:

• 1 cup rolled oats (quick cooking)
• 1/2 cup flax meal
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup raw sugar (use any type of sweetener you like here, and you can use less than 1/4 cup if you like, it won't really impact this recipe)
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut - unsweetened (with this, if you want to use less sugar, you can up the amount of coconut to make up the amount of dry ingredients)
• spices: 1 tsp cinnamon, pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, pinch of ground cloves, about 2 tsp freshly grated ginger 
• about 1/4 cup raw pepitas
• about 1/4 cup carob chips (or cacao nibs/dark vegan chocolate)
• about 1/4 cup diced candied ginger

Wet:

• 1 fake spice egg: 1 tbsp flax meal + 3 tbsp freshly brewed chai tea. Mix, and set aside for at least 5 minutes
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup freshly brewed chai tea

Method: 

• Pre heat your oven to 350, and line a cookie sheet with a baking pad/parchment paper
• In a large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients
• Add all of the wet ingredients except for the 1/2 cup freshly brewed chai tea
• Stir all ingredients together, then add the chai tea once everything is mixed well
• Stir the chai tea into the ingredients, and then allow to sit for at least 5 minutes. The idea is to get a firm oatmeal texture, not too runny though! 
• Spoon the dough out into the baking sheet one spoonful at a time, keeping it all close together and no more than 1/2 inch thick. Use the spoon to shape it all into a square shape, or whatever shape you want. The shape doesn't really matter. ;) I made it into a smooth square so that it was pretty, but it gets eaten anyways, so that's okay.
• Bake it for 15 minutes at 350. 
• Turn the oven up to 400, and bake for another 15 minutes. 
• Turn it back down to 350 and keep in the oven for 5 more minutes.
• Why? First you want to make sure the inside of the dough cooks without burning the outside - as I've done way too many times to count. Then after it's cooked through a bit, you can turn up the heat to make sure the outside cooks enough to hold the bars together. The last 5 minutes is just to cook it through a little bit more without burning the outsides of the dough.
• Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for 5 minutes before cutting into bars/cookie shapes/whatever. 
• Let cool before eating, because you will burn yourself. I did. 
• Eat, and enjoy! :) 

Here's a picture!