Quinoa Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Revisited
The idea of revisiting a couple of my older recipes had crossed my mind once or twice over the last year. When I started in 2011, the only camera I owned was my point and shoot (aka Mr. P&S). Mr. P&S was very reliable as a travel camera that could be tossed in my purse, but that’s about where his usefulness ended. I upgraded to a DSLR camera in February 2012 (no nickname, too excited), but that means there were (are) a lot of recipes from that first year of blogging with grainy photos. Many of the shots were taken pretty close to the food too, because for some reason I thought it would, I don’t know, hide the fact that I used to bake and take all my photos in the evening right before I went to bed (hint: it didn’t).
I’ve never felt the need to replace the photos in those old posts because I love keeping them as a reminder of how much I’ve learned over the years. Lately, though, I’ve started feeling bad about the fantastic recipes from that first year that are buried under a sea of unappetizing photos. Take these Quinoa Oatmeal Raisin Cookies for example. Since I posted this recipe back in 2011, I’ve made these soft, chewy cookies multiple times and they’ve always been a hit when I bring them to bake sales. And if you want a little throwback Thursday moment with your morning coffee, there’s a dorky photo at the bottom of that post where I’m dancing around the kitchen in our first apartment in Toronto. And that old windowless oven in the background? I loathed that appliance with every fiber of my being.
If you compare the ingredients list to the post from 2011, you may notice that this updated version of quinoa oatmeal raisin cookies is slightly different. I played around with the measurements a little more this time and reduced the amount of rolled oats to 1/3 cup and the sugar to just 1/2 cup in total to let the quinoa stand out a little more. I also cleaned up the wording and tweaked the ingredients listing so that the ingredients run in the same order as the directions. As of late, it’s become a kitchen pet peeve of mine when things like this are out of whack.
While I’m taking the time to revisit my updated version of these cookies, I also want to point out the awesome reusable baking sheets in these photos that I received from Cookina. As someone who constantly forgets to buy parchment paper, I found these sheets to be handy when you want something that is easy to cook on, cleans like a dream and is super photogenic. This isn’t a sponsored post and I’m not being paid for mentioning this, it’s just one of the cool swag items I received before attending the Food Bloggers of Canada Conference later this weekend.
Quinoa Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Revisited
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp flax
- 3 tbsp water
- 1/3 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup margarine, room temperature
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/4 cups soft whole-wheat flour
- 1 cup cooked quinoa, cooled
- 3/4 cup raisins
Directions:
- In a small bowl, combine ground flax and water and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350*F. Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper or non-stick baking mats.
- Whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together margarine, brown sugar, and white sugar. Add the flax/water mixture and vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently to combine. Stir in the quinoa and raisins.
- Drop by the tablespoon on a greased baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes until the tops are lightly brown and the bottom is a deeper brown.
- Cool for one minute and then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
