Oat Milk and Oat Cookies!
You’re getting TWO recipes today - and they go together like - well, milk and cookies.
A super quick, homemade oat milk recipe - which gives you the basis for you chewy, yummy oat cookies!
Oat is a fantastic ingredient.
It is one of the most nutrient dense grains you can get, and though you should be aware that it is high in carbs, it is also high in protein, healthy fat and fibre! It makes for super tasty non-dairy milk. Even if you do drink dairy milk, it can be great to know that you have a quick way of making your own, creamy, lovely milk at home if you’ve run out of other kinds! All you need is some oats and cold water.
I kind of just improvised my way to these cookies, so there’s lots of room to play. But my GOSH they were tasty, so I really recommend not wasting the leftover oat pulp you get from making the milk. And if you don’t want to make cookies, keep the pulp and use it for porridge, or in a smoothie later!
Oat milk
Makes 1 large bottle
Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats (avoid quick oats if you can!)
3-4 cups of cold water
1 tsp of sweetener: maple syrup, honey or 1 medjool date (or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract) (ps: you can omit the sweetener, is totally fine without too!)
Optional: a pinch of salt to elevate the taste even more (I usually skip this)
You also need:
A nut milk bag (fine mesh strainer, like this one for example)
Instructions
You will notice the method is not far from last week’s hazelnut milk.
No need to soak the oats, in fact, it can possibly make the milk a bit “slimy” sometimes, so I just mix the oats with the cold water, sweetener of choice (I usually skip the pinch of salt, but chuck that in to for extra tastiness!), in a blender for about 30 seconds, and that’s all!
Then transfer the mix into your fine mesh strainer that you have placed in a mug that will be easy to pour from, and gently strain the milk through. Don’t squeeze too hard as some of the oats will make their way through the strainer bag. It’s okay if the leftover pulp is pretty wet and gooey!
Then transfer the milk in the jug to a bottle, and store it in the fridge! There - you made oat milk!
Be aware that the milk will separate after a while. All you need to do is give it a good shake before you use it.
Now for the leftover oat pulp!
As I said above, the pulp can be stored and used for a porridge tomorrow morning or a smoothie later in the day, but I just have to share these cookies with you. I am not a massive sweet tooth, but these cookies were honestly just disappearing from my hand before I’d even realised. So that is saying a lot!
Oat Cookies
Makes roughly 16-20 cookies
Ingredients
The leftover oat pulp from making the milk
1/2 cup of dry oats (you can blitz them in the blender you used to make oat milk, if you want finer dough!)
A pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom (optional)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp of sweetener: maple syrup or honey
1 egg
1/2 cup nut butter (super tasty with peanut butter, or use almond butter for a less invasive flavour)
1/2 cup of milk (you can use the oat milk you just made!) - water is fine too!
Chocolate chips, roughly chopped cooking chocolate or raisins
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 160ºC for fan assisted, about 180ºC in a non-fan assisted, that’s just over 350ºF.
Put the pulp in a medium sized bowl, and add in the dry oats, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and baking powder. Mix everything well together, then add your sweetener of choice, egg and nut butter, and then add in the milk/water bit by bit and mix everything well. It should end up being a gooey, gloopy, gluey mix (those are the technical terms, I think). Mix in your chocolate chips or bits, or for a healthier version, lovely sweet raisins/sultanas. Some other dried berries, like currants or cranberries would be nice too!
Take a tablespoon and scoop out a good size for each cookie, and place it down on a large baking paper. You might need to get your hands and fingers involved as the batter is quite sticky. To help it stick less to your hand and the spoon, have a glass of water that you dip the spoon in between each cookie.
Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven - they were done after about 17 minutes for me, but anything between 15 and 20 minutes might be right depending on your oven. If unsure, take one out and carefully open it up to check if it is done on the inside.
Take the cookies out and leave to rest on a cooling wire rack. You can freeze these, if they don’t all disappear before you have time!
I’d love to see how your oat milk and cookies turned out! Or did you do something different with the leftover pulp? Share your result with me on Instagram and tag @TheFromScratchBody and hashtag #TheFromScratchBody so I don’t miss it!
