Flourless Chocolate Crunch Cashew Cookies Or Not

So in my effort to stop eating white flour for awhile I was intrigued by the use of rolled oats in this cookie recipe. So while I am sharing a new cookie recipe with you, please note for my family this was not of of best or brightest cookie recipe. It tasted great, it was just too crumbly cookie. I completely prefer a cookie that isn't threatening to crumble to the ground every other bite. BUT this turned out to be a brilliant & fabulous chocolate granola for breakfast, brunch, to throw on top of some frozen yogurt, or to layer in a parfait using up summers best fruits & berries. So welcome to a new breakfast granola recipe or cookie recipe... either way I hope you enjoy the crunch. When I adapted the recipe I also cut the ingredients by more than half. Ever notice that most batches of cookies make over 2 dozen? Yeah that's not going to happen here. Ha! Like I need that many cookies in my house. Excess cookie dough.. so yummy. Cookie dough is actually wonderfully freezable, but usually after my spoon and other spoons have gotten some "taste testing in" there isn't too much leftover to freeze. Yes the batches that yield that much cookie dough are dangerous.

Chocolate Crunch Cashew Cookies (Or granola)

Adapted from:King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book

Made 10-12 cookies

Ingredients:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, organic
1/4 + 1/8 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup of old fashioned rolled oats, ground up in a food processor or coffee grinder
1 cup of salted cashew pieces or coarsely chopped cashews


Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350
2. Lightly grease a baking sheet with butter, cooking spray, or use parchment paper
3. Mix the first 7 ingredients together in a large bowl. Then in the same large bowl, beat in the dry ingredients (ground oats, cashews).

4.  Drop the dough or roll them into circles and place them on the cookie sheet.
5. Use your fingers or a flat bottom drinking glass, press the cookies down pretty flat.
6. Bake the cookies - 12 - 14 minutes.
7. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool right there on the pan for a good 5-10 minutes. They will firm up when they have cooled but they are so crunchy they might crunch part way into a few pieces on ya :)

Crunchy, chewy, rasin-y, nutty - there is all sorts of cookies. Chocolate is one of my favorites.
If you don't find this one to your liking, try it as homemade granola. Instead of using the dough to make round cookies... bake it flat for 12- 15 minutes and let it cool. Store in an air tight container. Eat for breakfast. Or just eat them all with lots of cold yummy white milk or as ice cream sandwiches.

Enjoy!
From my kitchen to yours!
Stephanie