What exactly is "too much" of a good thing? And Oatmeal cookies.

Someone at work asked me if I could eat oats as I was leaving the office on Friday.  I realised I wasn't sure so I looked into it over the weekend. To my surprise it seems to be ok.

I'm eating oatmeal again.  Apparently you should look into these things more than once every 10 years.  When I first did my gluten research over 10 years ago, oatmeal was "undecided" as to whether it contained gluten or not.  Now apparently its ok - the only concern being cross contamination, which if you are celiac I appreciate how horrific that could be.  I am not particularly concerned... but may re-evaluate after I finish this bag of oatmeal if problems arise.

To celebrate this reunion with my long lost comfort food - I bought the biggest bag of oatmeal I could find and have been baking oatmeal cookies for the last hour. Also looking up other oatmeal recipes and planning on having oatmeal for breakfast for the rest of my life. No more boiled eggs (my standard daily breakfast).


The recipe below is the one I followed which I found on allergicliving.com. The only change I made was to use brown rice flour instead of white rice flour.

They taste really good warm.  Not sure they will last long enough to fully cool off...winding down the weekend with a cup of hot, steamed vanilla almond milk and an endless supply of "GF" oatmeal raisin cookies.
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Gluten-Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
(Source - allergicliving.com)

Ingredients

• 1½ cups (360 mL) brown sugar
• 1⁄4 cup (60 mL) vegetable shortening
• 1⁄2 cup (125 mL) vegetable oil
• 2 eggs or 4 tbsp (60 mL) egg replacer [e.g. Bob’s Red Mill or homemade]
• 1½ cups (360 mL) rice flour
• 1 tsp (5 mL) pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp (5 mL) cinnamon
• 1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
• 2 cups (475 mL) rolled oats [For gluten-free, use pure, uncontaminated oats, e.g. Bob's Red Mill, OnlyOats or Cream Hill Estates brands]
• 2 cups (475 mL) raisins [look for sulphite-free brands]

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F. In a stand mixer, beat together the first four ingredients. Add flour, vanilla, cinnamon and baking soda, stirring until smooth. Mix in oats and raisins until just combined.
2. Spoon large tablespoons of dough onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, spaced 2-3 inches apart.
3. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and serve. Will keep in an airtight container for up to 10 days.

Recipe by Food Editor Simon Clarke
Food photography by Chris Gonzaga
First published in Allergic Living magazine, Winter 2009.
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