Vegan Coconut-Cranberry Breakfast Cookies
Ahh, January. The month of desperately trying to recover from the junk feast that is the holiday season, only to miserably fail. Now, if you’re anything like me, avoiding sugar is not an option. Because the all-or-nothing method is essentially signing up for failure. That’s why I love these vegan coconut-cranberry breakfast cookies. You get the satisfaction of eating a cookie while also feeling like you’re making good life decisions. It’s a win-win really.
These breakfast cookies are a one-bowl recipe and can be done in under 30 minutes. They’re crisp around the edges, chewy in the middle and easily customizable. Plus, they’re great to eat throughout the day, not just breakfast. Like snacking, taking to go, as dessert, etc.
Customizing your vegan breakfast cookies
Breakfast cookies, like bars, are simple to change up depending on your preferences. Once you have the cookie base, the add-ons can be modified to suit your taste and dietary needs (nut-free, gluten-free…).
This version is made using coconut oil, cranberries, shredded coconut, rye flour and maple syrup. Each of those ingredients have possible substitutions if you happen to not have one of them. As long as they go well together, obviously.
Coconut oil can be replaced with another fat of a similar consistency. So natural peanut butter or other nut/nut-free butter, another type of oil or tahini.
Cranberries can be substituted with any other dried fruit like raisins, cherries or chopped up apricots or mangoes.
Shredded coconut should be replaced with something somewhat similar in size or you won’t have much of it as it’s a small quantity. Something like sesame seeds, sunflower seeds or even pumpkin seeds.
Rye flour is an easy one. Most flours will work like gluten-free, oat flour, all-purpose, whole wheat, etc. But I would avoid coconut flour as it absorbs a lot more liquid than other options.
Finally, maple syrup. Yes, these do contain sugar. Otherwise they would be very bland. Other liquid sweeteners like agave, coconut nectar or brown rice syrup will work just as well in these cookies.
I hope you enjoy these vegan coconut-cranberry breakfast cookies or whatever-other-flavour-you-decide-to-make-them cookies! And I wish you an amazing, or at least slightly better, 2021! Although 2020 won’t be too hard to beat i think.
If you make this recipe please let me know in the comments! All feedback is very much appreciated and I would love to hear from you! You can also tag me on instagram @the.quaint.kitchen or use the hashtag #thequaintkitchen to share your creations!
Vegan Coconut-Cranberry Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- 40 g unrefined virgin coconut oil, melted
- 80 g maple syrup
- 40 g water, lukewarm
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseeds
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp orange zest
- 20 g fine or medium unsweetened shredded coconut
- 40 g rye flour
- pinch of salt
- 35 g dried cranberries
- 180 g old fashioned rolled oats
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.
- Whisk together the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, water, ground flaxseeds, baking powder, orange zest, shredded coconut, rye flour and salt.
- Then stir in the dried cranberries followed by the oats.
- Using a 1/4 cup measure or an ice cream scoop of equivalent size, portion the cookies out onto your prepared baking sheet. It’s a crumbly mixture so you can’t shape them by hand.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes then let cool completely on the baking sheet and store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Notes
- *Disclaimer: I have a tiny not-so-great oven, so your bake time may vary from mine.
- I strongly suggest making recipes by weight, if you make them by cups I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the same results.
- Possible substitutions can be found in the blog post.
- If you live in colder climate and you used coconut oil for the cookies, you can pop them in the microwave for a few seconds before eating if you want them softer since the coconut oil in them solidifies.