Local Sweets

I've wanted these cookies for 2 weeks now. They've been in my head- a recipe just waiting to be baked. And now that I've tasted them (and the dog has stolen about 6), I'll have to admit that they were worth the wait.

I wanted these so bad because I've been eating relatively few sweets since my local challenge began 2 weeks ago. I haven't baked much for sweets and I haven't bought many either because I know darn well that cane sugar isn't locally grown. But really, who needs cane sugar when we live amongst the maple trees. If I weren't allergic to them, I'd go hug a maple right now.

Everything in these cookies except for the oil, salt, baking powder and vanilla can be produced in the MN region.

Sunny Maple Oat Cookies
(vegan, wheat free, soy free, no refined sugar)

3/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup oat flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup sunflower seed butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly oil. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, oat flour, oats, seeds, baking powder, and salt until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sunbutter, syrup, oil, and vanilla. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and stir until combined- it will be thick. Drop batter by the heaping spoonful onto the baking sheet, leaving room for the cookies to spread. Bake 10-12 minutes.

Note: if you want to make these with wheat flour, I'm sure they'd work just fine. Just replace the oat flour and/or cornmeal with wheat flour. The texture of the oat and cornmeal is pretty nice, though.