Nutty Oatmeal cookies

Nuts, chopped dried apples or other fruit, coconut or a combination help oats produce a great cookie. Choose the first options throughout this recipe ingredient list, and you've got a surprisingly good vegan cookie! (psst...This recipe can handle an extra 1/4 cup of bits of semisweet or dark chocolate)

To make the spice flavors more powerful, bump up the amount of cinnamon to a teaspoon and add 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger and 1/4 spoon of each ground allspice and nutmeg. Make these cookies bite size because you know people will have more than 5 in one seat and its just more fun.

1/2cup peanut oil lor vegetable oil or 1 stick unsalted butter, softened.

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup applesauce or 2 eggs

1 and 1/2 cups all porpuse flour

2 cups rolled oats (not instant)

1 cup chopped dried apples or another fruit

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

1.Heat the oven to 375F. Use an electric mixer to cream the oil or butter and the sugars together; add the applesauce or eggs and beat until well blended.

2. combine tthe flour, oats, fruit, nuts, cinnamon, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Alternating with the milk, add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture by hand, a little at a time, stirring to blend. Stir the vanilla.

3. Put teaspoon-size mounds of dough about 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. bake until light browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool for about 2 minutes on the sheets, then use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a rack to finish cooling. Store in a tightly covered container at room temperature!! yum yum, Enjoy!