Midnight Cookies

Last night after watching the movie "Morning Glory" (which I really enjoyed despite having never heard of it before last night and it being pretty predictable), my husband and I had a hankering for donuts.  One of the last scenes involves a grizzly Harrison Ford, actually, I won't describe the scene in case you haven't seen it and want to watch it.  Our internet searching brought up some yummy sounding recipes for vegan donuts, but unfortunately I did not have a full compliment of ingredients for any of the recipes :(

However, by that time the urge to bake and eat was too strong so I had to make something.  What could I bake at midnight with the contents of my pantry?  The recipe I came up with is loosely based on Afghan biscuits - which by the way apparently originated in New Zealand.   Why are they called Afghans?  I dunno.   Internet searching throws up a few possibilities as to why - none of which seem very PC.  First Anzacs, now Afghans.  How awful!  What will I be baking next!

Well, as my cookies have a few significant differences I have taken the liberty of renaming them Midnight Cookies in honor of the ideal time to bake them.  I am sure you could make some changes depending on what is in your pantry when the craving strikes eg throw in some nuts instead of the sultanas or coconut.

Midnight Cookies
Makes about 22 cookies

Ingredients:
150g margarine
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 cup soy milk
1 cup plain flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/3 cup desiccated coconut
2/3 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup sultanas

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180oC
2. Line two trays with baking paper.
3. Beat the margarine and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add the vanilla essence and soy milk and beat well.
5. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix with metal spoon until just combined.
6. Drop tablespoon sized blobs onto the lined baking trays.  They will not spread much at all so you can space them pretty close. 
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on how moist vs crunchy you want them to be.
8. Allow to cool.
9. If you want to (and you have some in your pantry) add a dollop of melted vegan chocolate to the top of each cookie. 
10. Grab a glass of cold soy milk and enjoy!

For the chocolate on top of my cookies I melted 6 pieces of Sweet William dairy free chocolate from the multipack with a dash of canola oil.  If you are melting chocolate in the microwave be very careful not to overdo it or you will ruin the chocolate.  Make sure that your bowl and stirring spoon are very clean.  I do it in spurts of 30-45 seconds stirring after each blast.  Adding a dash of oil helps to keep it smooth and makes it easier to spread.

NB - the photos were taken this morning.  Not very good that there are only 8 biscuits left - considering I made 22 last night and there were only 2 of us here to eat them last night.

Actually make that only 6 biscuits left!