Egg-free Spiced Cocoa Oatmeal Cookie Two Ways

Since I've discovered an easy way to make cookies without eggs I have been experimenting with recipes. I looked in my pantry and just began pulling things out that I thought might be good together. I decided to do a play on a Mexican Chocolate flavor so I pulled out pumpkin pie spices, cinnamon, and cocoa powder.

The first time I made them I was testing flavors so I wasn't sure if the measurements I used would be the final recipe. The second time I made them I read my own directions wrong and made what I thought at first was going to be a fail but was actually pretty good as a separate recipe. So you'll find both recipes below. The first recipe makes a softer, chewy cookie and the second recipe makes a flatter cookie with a bit of crunch, but still soft. Both cookies are good and taste similar, they just differ in look and texture. 

Recipe 1.

What you need:

1/2 cup salted butter (I use Kerry Gold)

1/2 cup granulated sugar 

2 tablespoons water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup plus 4 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spices

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

What you do:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F

Mix butter and sugar until creamed. Add water and vanilla, mix. 

In a separate bowl mix oats, flour, salt, baking soda, pumpkin pie spices, cinnamon and cocoa powder. Gradually add to wet mixture and combine. 

Spoon onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake cookies 8-10 minutes, check the cookies at 8 minutes and see if they need longer- it will be harder to tell because of the cocoa powder in the cookies, but you'll see that the bottom edges are set and slightly darker than the top of the cookie. Remove from oven and put on a cooling rack. 

Recipe 2.

The fail that turned into a decent cookie! First, I accidentally bought steel cut oats instead of rolled outs. This added a crunch to the cookie that's actually delightful. The other mistake I made was I only used 1 cup of oats instead of 1 1/2 cups. Both of these mistakes really changed the texture of both the dough and the cookie. Leaving out the extra 1/2 cup of oats makes a wetter dough which allows the cookies to spread out on the cookie sheet and if left to bake a little longer makes a crunchy cookie. I'm not a fan of hard/crunchy cookies so I took them out at 8 minutes and let them cool- they were chewy but had great texture (and taste!) from the steel cut oats.

What you will need:

1/2 cup salted butter (I use Kerry Gold)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup steel cut oats 

1/2 cup plus 4 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons cocoa powder.

What you do:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F

Mix butter and sugar until creamed. Add water and vanilla, mix.

In a separate bowl mix, oats, flour, salt, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and cocoa powder. Gradually add to wet mixture and combine.

Spoon onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake cookies 8-10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a rack.