Grandmother's Oatmeal Sugar Cookies, Veganized

I don't know if I have mentioned it on this blog, but the grandmother whose recipes I have been veganizing isn't one I ever met on this plane. She passed away a few years before I was born and much too soon. Stories of her have filled my life, though. She was like an excited little bird, according to my mother, flitting here and there with an energy that was impossible to contain within her tiny frame. We have bracelets of hers that, even as a child, I could not fit onto my wrists. She had an apron that said, "Never trust a skinny cook," the extra joke being that she was both skinny and not to be trusted. She was a beautiful mix of ethnicities, growing up in a time when being different was never allowed. I hope I have some of her wit and vigor and maybe a little of her artistic sensibilities. I will never know her in person, but I can see her handwriting on the little recipe cards my mother keeps in her recipe box, and I can follow her instructions from a time gone by.

Today, I present to you vegan oatmeal sugar cookies. When I started making these cookies, I wondered why I would bother veganizing something I'm sure can be found all over the internet. For reasons seen above, I did it anyway. The result was not just satisfaction for the soul. These cookies are lighter than the average oatmeal cookie. They have a nutty flavor, and they melt easily in one's mouth. This is not just another vegan oatmeal cookie recipe; it's my grandmother's and mine.



Grandmother's Oatmeal Sugar Cookies, Veganized
makes about 2.5 dozen cookies

1 cup sugar
1 cup vegan margarine
2 tablespoons flax meal mixed with 6 tablespoons of water, set aside for five minutes
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oats
1 3/4 cup flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips
Cooking spray or shortening
Sugar for top of cookies

1. Cream together the sugar, margarine, flax meal mixture and vanilla. Mix in oats, flour, baking powder salt and cinnamon. Fold in chocolate chips.
2. Refrigerate at least four hours or freeze for one hour.
3. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Shape dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into balls and place on baking sheet.
4. Grease bottom of glass with cooking spray or shortening. Dip in sugar. Flatten each cookie slightly with bottom of glass.
5. Bake 10-12 minutes until the bottoms brown.
6. Cool for five minutes, then transfer cookies to rack to cool completely.

The hounds say hello from Maine/