You don't. Sometimes they work out perfectly and, well, sometimes they don't. These didn't, but it was all my fault. They don't look so bad, right? They didn't taste bad either, but they didn't taste like rich, buttery, chewy deliciousness either. That was kind of what I was going for.What I did wrong:
1. I used mostly Earth Balance (a vegan margarine) instead of butter and I topped up the measuring cup with oil so that the cookies would be dairy-free, but I forgot how bland both of these things are, and un-butter-like
2. I used a gluten-free flour blend instead of all-purpose white flour, so the cookies spread out very thinly on the baking sheet instead of rising a little.
3. I placed the cookies too close together on the baking sheet, so they spread into each other and into a giant, but thin, cookie rectangle. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it makes the cookies look more like logs or slices than cookies when you try to figure out how to remove them from the pan.
Ingredients:
1/2 butter (I should have just used butter or a flavourful margarine. Anything is better than earth balance it seems. I just got a new vegan cookbook and all the desserts are made with oil. I'm so very much not excited)
1 cup minus a tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp molasses (you can also just use 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar. It's the same thing)
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup gluten free flour blend (I should maybe have used 1/2 cup all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat, like the original recipe suggested, but my gluten-free flour blend is supposed to replace all-purpose and 1 cup of all-purpose would in theory be better than 1/2 cup all-purpose and 1/2 cup whole wheat)
1 1/4 cups large-flake rolled oats, blended (ground) into a flour (this is the same thing as oat flour, but you're much more likely to have rolled oats lying around than ground oat flour. It'll also be fresher this way. You could just leave the rolled oats large but it's a completely different texture and having done both, I think the grinding method tastes and works better)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup dried cherries or raisins, optional (I skipped this because I just wanted plain oatmeal cookies. Savoury, not sweet)
1/2 cup grated chocolate, optional (I would only have used 1 oz if I used this, but again, I didn't feel like it. Besides I already had the chocolate in my biscotti)
Nothing fancy to this recipe, which may also be why the cookies spread on the baking sheet instead of staying in their cookie mounds.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
Beat the margarine and sugars in a large bowl until light, about 2-3 minutes. Maybe I skimped on this step? Beat in the egg whites and vanilla. Doesn't say how long. At this point I'm missing Alice Medrich. She would have specified...well, in at least one of her recipes she would have specified and then you'd be expected to use that recipe as a guide for all other cookie recipes because God forbid she copy and paste...
In a slightly smaller bowl combine the flour, ground oats (I just used my blender to grind them. It worked great), baking powder and soda. Whisk to combine (stirring is also fine, apparently). Now stir the flour mixture into the creamed margarine mixture until combined. Then optionally stir in the dried fruit and/or chocolate.
Drop batter (or shape artistically - in mounds...not exactly Da Vinci) by the tbsp (approximately. Who actually gets out a tablespoon to measure how big the cookies are?) onto parchment-lined baking sheets. The parchment is just so you don't have to use butter to grease the pan. You can also use aluminum foil, or God forbid, cooking spray. If you think cooking spray is your best option I vote that greasing with butter will add calories and fat, but you'll be better off this way than with the chemicals in the aerosol spray can.
I used just one cookie sheet and a small tray for the toaster oven but I definitely should have done two batches. They only bake for 12-14 minutes so I should have just been patient. The recipe is supposed to make 32 cookies and 13 cookies per pan is standard. So AT LEAST two cookie sheets. I guess that's why my cookies oozed into each other. Still, they were absolutely delicious when fresh out of the oven - fresh and soft and a little gooey, but still chewy from the ground oats. I couldn't taste the butter, which was a little sad, but when your mouth is full of fresh cookie you won't complain.
How to save a pan of spread cookies: The thing about creating a pan of cookies is that it's hard to remove them from the pan if they've spread into each other. I'm big on geometric shapes, but I don't exactly have any spatulas that are good at creating circular cookies from a rectangular pan. This is called a cookie-cutter, I know, but then you waste all that cookie i between the piece, and you don't get the nice finished edge. You basically need to cut the cookie like a piece of cake into squares. It's not that attractive and the mixture's a bit crumbly. So wait until it's cooled but not stiff (20 minutes, approximately) and then carefully slice through the pieces in whatever shapes you want. My cookies didn't have to be pretty, but I ended up re-cutting them later once they had hardened up a bit and at that point it was too late. They were a little bit brittle and crumbly. I hate wasting cookies and I hate jagged edges so I had to eat the crumbly bits. Not the worst thing in the world, but also a bit of a waste. Normally I would never say that but it would have been WAY too unhealthy for me to eat all the crumbly bits and so there are all these little leftover pieces that I can't really serve anyone else. The point is, when you make a new cookie recipe, make some small cookies on the baking sheet and some larger ones. That way if the cookies spread at least the small ones will be fine and pretty. Then you'll know for next time how large you can make them. Pencils were created for a reason - make notes in your recipe book to remind yourself next time of what to do. The definition of insanity...
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