Zucchini Cookies

During our Oklahoma Snow storm, the kids were out of school for 2 full weeks. That left us with a lot of free time on our hands since we couldn’t quite drive anywhere. Thankfully, I had a ton of baking ingredients in the cabinets so we spent hours in the kitchen making goodies. There were at least 3 days of Almond Buttermilk Pancakes/Waffles for breakfast in addition to several days of making loaves of zucchini bread, rice crispy treats, carmel apple empanadas,cookies and southern biscuits (all allergy free of course). Those recipes will follow in upcoming posts.

I was then inspired by a recent Martha Stewart recipe for zucchini cookies which actually sandwiches the two cookies with a sugary frosting in between. My kids wont eat that, thankfully, and as usual, her recipes typically contain eggs, milk or nuts. So I decided to try making these cookies, but changing the ingredients to make them safe for our family. They turned out quite yummy. The only problem is that since they contain zucchini, I find myself making excuses for why I can eat cookies for breakfast. Here is my recipe:

Vegan Zucchini Bread Cookies

1 C. All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 Stick Earth Balance butter, at room temp.
1/2 C. Granulated Sugar
1/2 C. Light Brown Sugar
1 TB. Ground Flax Meal, mixed into 3 TB. Warm Water
1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
3 Medium grated Zucchinis (approx 2 cups)
1. C. Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 C. Dairy Free Vegan Chocolate Chips (I love Enjoy Life)

1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and 1/4 tsp. salt in a medium bowl.
3. Beat 1 stick butter and sugars until fluffy with electric mixer. Beat in vanilla and flax mixture.
4. Beat flour mixture into butter mix. Fold in oats, zucchini and chocolate chips. Refrigerate approx 30 minutes to firm.
5. Using a ice cream scoop, drop dough onto prepared baking sheets, spacing approx 2 ” apart.
6. Bake approx 15-17 minutes, until edges are golden. Depending on your oven, you may need to rotate your sheet half way through its baking time.
7. Let cool on wire rack.

These can be stored 2 days at room temp or 1 week in the fridge (if you can keep your hands off them for that long)