A month or so ago, an inspired listmember (I'm sorry, I don't remember
who it was, but I hope she'll step forward to take credit for this
brilliant idea) posted a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that
substitutes white bean puree for the butter. I'm only now getting
around to trying out the concept, but I thought others who were also
intrigued--as well as those who are new to the list--would like to hear
the results.
I decided to make oatmeal cookies instead of chocolate chip and so
simply followed the recipe on the Quaker Oats box (w/ adaptations,
included in the notes below). I'm *very* pleased with how they turned
out! NO: they don't taste "beany" in the slightest. Not even the
cookie dough tastes "beany" (it's downright yummy). The cookies puff up
a bit and are soft and cakey--a bit more like little drop scones than
cookies--and, as the original poster pointed out, they don't brown very
much, just a little on the bottoms. Although the batter tasted rather
sweet and I was thinking of cutting the amount of sugar next time
around, the finished cookies are not too sweet at all--just right for
me.
Not wanting to dirty up any more appliances than necessary, I didn't
bother to puree the beans but simply dumped them into the bowl of the
mixer along with the sugars and "creamed" them on high until the beans
were mostly smooth (they don't get completely smooth this way, but this
didn't seem to affect the finished cookies at all. Be forewarned, too,
that the bean-sugar mixture will be runny, not fluffy like its
butter-sugar counterpart. See my notes below).
So: with thanks once again to whoever first posted the bean-idea, here's
my (blatantly ripped-off) recipe for:
Oatmeal (bean) Cookies
1 heaping cup of cooked white beans (w/ liquid), pureed if desired
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/4 c. white sugar
1 egg beater or other substitute
1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour (use all-purpose flour if you prefer)
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt (optional)
1 1/2 c. rolled oats
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream beans with sugars. Add egg beater
and vanilla. Stir in flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt, then add
the rolled oats. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a lightly Pam-sprayed
cookie sheet and flatten slightly (this is easier if you wet your hand
first). Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies seem solid and the
bottom edges look a bit browned. Remove to rack and cool. Makes about
2 dozen.
Notes: I substituted 1/4 c. soy flour for 1/4 c. of the whole wheat
flour and added 1/4 c. of oat bran. The batter still seemed a little
soft, so I threw in an extra handful of oats, too (I guess this could be
avoided by draining the beans at the outset). Since I used beans that
I'd soaked and cooked myself (with no salt or seasonings), I had to add
quite a bit of salt--more than the 1/2 teaspoon called for--to make up
for what's usually in the butter (a requirement of my personal taste,
not of the recipe). Regular canned beans probably have enough salt in
them already, but you should, of course, adjust the salt level to suit
your own taste and needs. This is based on the Quaker Oats recipe,
which I cut in half. Simply double the recipe to make a larger batch.
Jane