Since we had a persimmon and a lot of oats that hadn’t been used in a while, I decided to combine both to make oatmeal cookies! This was my first attempt at making vegan cookies, and I was surprised by how well they held together. When I first took them out of the oven, I poked at them a little, doubting they could even make it off the tray in one piece. But once they cooled and hardened, they could easily be removed from the tray without crumbling. For this recipe, make sure the persimmon has not ripened completely. If it is ripe, the cookies will come out a little watery and the cookie dough will not stick well together. My persimmon was average-sized (about 3.5 inches in diameter), so I only needed 1 for this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup oats, divided

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup brown sugar

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp whole milk

3.5 tbsp canola oil

¾ cup chopped persimmon (little cubes)

¼ cup hazelnuts (halved)

¼ tsp cardamom

(makes about 8 cookies)

Tools:

Baking pan

Wax paper (optional)

Medium-sized Bowl

Vitamix (or another type of food processor)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Use a few drops of canola oil and spread it over your baking tray. (Alternatively, you can use wax paper to cover the baking tray.)
2. Mix the flour, baking soda, ½ cup of oats, cinnamon, cardamom, and brown sugar in the medium-sized bowl with a whisk. Place this mixture in the Vitamix (this mixture will only be blended for 20 seconds total.) Leave the setting on Variable 1. Slowly increase the speed to Variable 10, then switch to High. Turn off the High switch, and slowly decrease the speed from 10 to 1. Turn the Vitamix off.
3. In a small bowl, pour the maple syrup, canola oil, and whole milk. Pour this mixture into the Vitamix as well.
4. Mix all the ingredients in the Vitamix following the same process as Step 2. Scrape down the sides and mix until the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
5. Remove the mixture from the Vitamix and place it in the medium sized bowl. Mix in the remaining ½ cup oats using your hands. Add the chopped persimmon and hazelnuts.
6. Take about 2 tbsp of cookie dough, roll it into a ball, and flatten a little. Place it on the cookie sheet, and do the same with the rest of the cookie dough. Leave about 2 inches between each cookie on the baking tray. Optional: Sprinkle a little bit of brown sugar over each cookie. This way, when the cookies come out of the oven, some of the persimmon will be crystallized with the sugar.
7. Place the tray into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. (No, this is not a typo- it only takes 10 minutes!)
8. When they come out of the oven, don’t touch them! They’re pretty soft, so let them cool for about 10 minutes.
9. Now eat. 🙂

P.S. You can always change which spices you use and how much for this recipe, depending on how you like your oatmeal cookies. Also, originally I had wanted to use macadamia nuts for this recipe, but unfortunately there was none left in the house so I had to use hazelnuts! If you try these comment below and let me know how they turned out! 🙂

Inspired by Oh She Glows Oatmeal Cookies