Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Agave Cookies are vegan cookies (or can be), sweetened with your choice of agave syrup, golden syrup or maple syrup. I've been known to mix all three depending on what we have around. For egg-free but non-vegan cookies, I've incorporated honey.

Oil-Based Dough
There's no butter in the dough, just oil, so this is one recipe where you definitely want to use a fresh, neutral flavored oil. I like sunflower and grapeseed. Canola is okay if you use it freshly opened, otherwise it can take on other flavors. Or so I've noticed.
These are interesting cookies because they have very little baking soda and a whole lot of add-ins. The sticky dough is packed with chocolate, nuts, coconut and dried fruit, so it's basically a conduit for all of those things. Oil-based oat dough tends to be crumbly, so you may need to add a tiny bit of water to help it hold together. You may not. Adjust as needed. The cookies barely spreads, so be sure to press the dough down unless the rounded ball look is what you are going for.
Recipe

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Agave Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour (190 grams)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup agave or golden syrup (160 grams)
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, neutral such as grapeseed or sunflower (50 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ cups old fashioned oats
- ⅓ cup raisins or another type of dried fruit
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- ½ cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
- ½ cup chopped nuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and mix well.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, syrup, and vanilla.
- Add the flour mixture to the oil mixture and stir with a heavy duty scraper until combined. Stir in the oats and the other additions (coconut, chocolate chips, raisins, nuts).
- Using medium size cookie scoop, Scoop up dough and arrange on parchment lined cookie sheets spacing 2 inches apart. Flatten the balls slightly or to about ¾ inch thick depending on how thick you want them. This dough doesn't spread much. Bake one sheet at a time for about 12 minutes (or up to 14 minutes).
- Slice parchment off the baking sheet and let the cookies cool on the parchment.





Louise says
Anna, you are ahead of the curve here. I was reading the Feb 2009 Gourmet Magazine in bed last night. 🙂 There's an article about the "Nimble Nectar". They said when baking with agave nectar, you can substitute three quarters of a cup of nectar for every cup of sugar called for in the recipe, lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees, and reduce other liquid ingredients (oil, water) by a third to avoid shapeless mishaps.
Jenn's Baking Chamber says
That's a great picture! Fabulous!
claire says
Yum! For sure a must try.