Gluten Free Quinoa Cowgirls

Giddy Up CowGirl!

So.. I called these cowgirls, because I love the name, I love Rosetta's (Asheville, NC) vegan cowgirl cookies and, even though they aren't really cowgirl cookies, there are so many ingredients, if I listed it out the title would be way too long!
 There are a couple reasons I'm really excited about these:
1) They are gluten free (a blog reader requested a GF recipe)
2) They are high in protein
3) I just ate 5 (had to test each batch!)
4) And I finally made it work!

I've made a couple gluten free recipes and I have to say, it takes practice for sure (especially if you don't want them saturated with butter or eggs). There is still debate about whether or not oats are GF and many American processed brand are said to be contaminated... Bobs Red Mill uses the ELISA system to test. I do not have Celiac's. I have discovered that I am a bit wheat/starch sensitive. At least my bowels are.. so I've been breaking away from those foods more and more. I don't have an issue with sprouted grains (including wheat) though. hhmmmm "Food" for thought :)

Now, I made a few cookies at time, altering the batch and baking time a bit just to see... explain later.

Onto the recipe:
Dry:
1/2 cup Toasted Quinoa Flour* (see below)
1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour (I ran out of Quinoa/garbanzo)
1 cup Oats (I ground this up to medium coarse/medium fine in blender)
1 Tsp arrowroot (may not need-but I did it)
1 Tbs Flax seed (ground-ish)
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg
 1/8 Tsp Cloves
Liquid:
2 Tbs Coconut oil (tried to avoid this, didn't work)
1/4 cup Apple Pulp (or sauce)
2 Tbs (or more as needed) Apple Juice
1/4 (or more as needed) Soy milk or Almond Milk
1 Tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tbs (or more) Maple Syrup (Optional-taste it-may want more-mine are barely sweet but I only added more juice)
Add Ins:
1/4 cup (or more) dried cranberries
5-6 Dried Apricots (soaked then squeezed of water- chopped)

Ok, I know it looks complicated and I was just adding more of this and that as I needed it..but somewhere along these lines and you will have yourself a delicious healthy cookie!

First, soak those apricots. Second, add the vinegar (or lemon/lime juice) to the milk-let curdle).

*Toasting the Quinoa: Quinoa actually contains a toxic substance (saponin) which I learned about while making sprouted Quinoa 'salads.' It is said that most of this is removed in processing.. but since I make my own quinoa flour..

To be on the safe side:  I wash my quinoa.. spread it on a pan and let it dry, then put through my flour grinder, before toasting it on low for about 5 minutes (constantly stirring) in a dry skillet. Alternatively, you can spread your whole (or flour) quinoa on a pan and toast at about 200-215F for an hour or so.. but pan toasting it much faster.

Ok, NOW you are ready:
Combine all dry ingredients in medium bowl.

Combine all wet ingredients in large bowl (except add ins)

 Add dry to wet. Stir until just combined (at this point-taste for sweetness, check for moisture- you may need more milk/juice).

Fold in the cranberries/chopped apricots.

Mmmm MM

Shape into teaspoonful rounds on pan (most vegan cookies keep the shape you put them in and do not spread). Bake at 4 minutes (for a moister cookie) 5 minutes for a cakier cookie) and 6-7 minutes for a crunchy on the outside (but kind of dry cookie). I recommend baking 3 cookies alone. Try then at 4 minutes.. see what you think, bake some more-or add more sweetener/liquid. On the last try I added an additional Tbs of milk and finally added in 1 Tsp of Maple (the rest of the batch was sweetened with juice) and while they were tastiest (due to the maple!), they were also a bit moist for me.

My favorite way: 4 minutes at 350, right off the pan, with a thick cake batter consistency. I added 2 Tbs of milk to this, baked the second batch for 5 minutes and they were perfect! They have the whole soft baked oatmeal cookie thing going on.

Nutritious and Delicious!!!