peach and walnut oaty biscuits

This week has felt long, maybe it was the warm weather (which I do love) or maybe my body still thinks I am a uni student and is waiting for our summer holidays (sorry body, those days are over) but I have felt tired. So today as the weather cooled down a little I tried to slow down too. Not something I am very good at. My good intentions didn't really last long and after doing food shopping, having some quick baby cuddles with my new nephew, cleaning the house, Christmas shopping and getting my hair cut by mid afternoon my head was spinning. Since I had the house to myself I decided to stop and curl up on the couch with a good cookbook to flick through and a David Attenborough documentary (I'm a geek I know but I love a good nature doco). The cookbook of choice today was one I have read and read and still love "The Kind Diet" by Alicia Silverstone. I know what you may be thinking, the actress from Clueless wrote a cookbook? and Yep she did and it is a really lovely book full of delicious vegan recipes and good information about vegan diets. One of my favorite recipes in the book if for the Oatmeal, Walnut and Dried Plum Cookies. I am a BIG fan of oat biscuits. I love that they are chewy and not too sweet but I have never found dried plums in Australia. I have tried this recipe with sultanas and apricots but I had just bought a bag of dried peaches which got me thinking...

So this is an adaptation of Alicia's recipe from The Kind Diet. I have made a few changes to make them more my style. I have decreased the baking soda as I thought it was a bit much the first time I made them. I also swapped the original  maple sugar for coconut sugar because it is what i like to use (and is a LOT less expensive) but feel free to use brown sugar if that is what you or your budget likes. I love the combination of peaches and walnuts but feel free to play with your favorite nut/ fruit combo. Something festive could be pecans and dried cranberries... so many options! One of the best things about these cookies is they are quick, so you can knock them out in half an hour max. So off you go, whip yourself up a batch and curl up on the couch, that's where I will be for the rest of the day.

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup spelt flour

1/3 cup coconut sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil but coconut oil would work too)

 1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp molasses

1/4 cup chopped dried peaches

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Process

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line two trays with baking paper. Place the oats, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nuts and fruit in a large bowl and mix to combine. In a separate bowl mix the oil, maple syrup, vanilla and molasses together. Fold the wet mix into the dry ingredients. Wet your hands (to stop the mix sticking) and roll tbsp amounts of the mixture into balls and place on the prepared trays. Allow LOTS of space between the balls as they will spread quiet a lot. When you have rolled out all the mixture wet a spoon or fork and gently press them down a little. Place in the oven for 8-10mins until just golden. Allow to cool slightly on the trays and then move them to a cooling rack to cool completely.  Enjoy with a big glass of cold "milk", I like soy milk best with biscuits, it feels really creamy and indulgent.