sweet recipe :: vegan oat cookies with jam

Two of my projects for this weekend were cleaning out/rearranging the kitchen cupboards and planning my canning activities for this summer.  I love canning peach preserves each year, but last year I may have made too many jars because I still have four in the cupboard to finish off before peaches hit their peak season.  

I decided to make a batch of cookies with peach preserves in the center to take advantage of this surplus!

To make these simple cookies you will need:

(makes 16 cookies)

2 cups of quick cooking oats

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup of whole raw almonds

3/4 cup flour, divided

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup maple syrup

fruit jam or preserves of your choice

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 degress C) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Place the oats and salt in a food processor and pulse until they are roughly chopped.  Transfer into a medium sized mixing bowl.

Next, place the almonds in the food processor and and pulse until they are chopped into small pieces.  Add the almonds to the mixing bowl.

Add 1/2 cup flour, reserving the remaining 1/4 cup.

Add the canola oil and maple syrup, then stir everything together until well combined.  The dough will be quite wet, and that is fine.  Sprinkle in the remaining 1/4 cup of flour until the dough is sticky and moist, but not runny.

Form the dough into small balls and place on a cookie sheet, flattening them slightly.  The cookies don't spread much, so just leave an inch between each one.  When all the dough is on the cookie sheet use your thumb (or the back of a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon) to make an indentation in the center of each cookie.  Place 1/2 teaspoon of jam in the middle of each cookie.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the cookies start to brown a little bit.  Let the cookies cool completely before you try one - that jam will be hot like lava when they come out of the oven!  : )