COOKIES,  DESSERTS

SUNFLOWER OATMEAL COOKIES…HAPPINESS IN A COOKIE!

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It’s what sunflowers do. “
Helen Keller
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I LOVE baking, which is quite obvious I’m sure…& baking sometimes seems to be the best escape for me. Even when I’ve been run ragged, rushing the kids up & down & across town, doing grocery, laundry & every other silly thing under the sun, I come back home & am always ready for some baking therapy.
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Found some lovely sunflowers growing at a friend’s place, & couldn’t resist the offer to take a few. So home I came, clutching a pretty buncha flowers in giddy excitement. Sunflowers just do this to me.
IMG 1382I think they are quite the brightest & most cheerful flowers; for Mondays, or any day for that matter!! The minute I saw the sunflowers, I just knew I would head home & bake sunflower seed somethings!
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I was back to what I like doing best! Have been meaning to use a bagful of sunflower seeds for a while now, which my friend brought for me from Ukraine. She keeps carting these interesting ingredients across each time she visits coz she knows it’ll trigger some more baking passion in me.
IMG 1398She also brought along some yummy sachets of vanilla sugar. How could I not do justice to what was in the bag!! Browsed around the net & found these Sunflower Oatmeal Cookies on All Recipes, a site I often explore. The reviews were enough to send me baking…
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Sunflower Oatmeal Cookies as adapted from Allrecipes

Ingredients:
White sugar – 1 cup
Brown sugar – 1 cup, packed
Butter – 1 cup, softened
Eggs – 2
Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon
All-purpose flour – 1 1/2 cups
Whole-wheat flour – 1/2 cup (I substituted 1/2 cup plain flour with whole-wheat)
Baking powder – 1/2 teaspoon
Baking soda – 1 teaspoon
Rolled oats – 2 cups
Roasted and salted sunflower seeds – 1 cup
Flaked coconut – 1 cup (optional) / I didn’t use this
Vanilla sugar – 1 sachet/ 2 tsps ( part of my change to the original recipe)

collageMethod:

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  • In a large bowl, cream together the white sugar, brown sugar, and butter until smooth.
  • Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
  • Combine the flour, baking powder, and baking soda; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended.
  • Mix in the rolled oats and sunflower seeds. Stir in coconut if desired. Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Leave room for spreading. Sprinkle with some seeds & chocolate strands if you like.
  • Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the cookies begin to brown around the edge.
  • Allow cookies to set for a few minutes on the sheet before removing to wire racks to cool completely
IMG 1534Of course I have to do something different…& often. So while dropping the cookies on the sheet, I thought, hmmmmmmmm, HOW ABOUT A COOKIE CAKE! Have long been fascinated by a chocolate chip cookie cake picture I once saw, & this seemed a good time to try it. I think I made about 3 dozen cookies & the rest of the dough went into the cookie cake. IMG 1259I pressed some cookie dough firmly into a lined 8″ Victoria sandwich tin & baked it for about 30-35 minutes, just until it became golden brown. Marked the segments as soon as it came out of the oven & let it cool in the tin. I left a small rim of paper coming up around the edges of the base to aid easy removal.
IMG 1427Got this brilliant dessert serving idea from this Cookie Dough Dessert by Ruth @ Ruth’s Kitchen Experiments where she had posted a similar dessert. Just the right way to serve this yummy cookie cake!!
IMG 2002 IMG 1370Have a great sunshine day!

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

21 Comments

  • Passionate About Baking

    Ooooh I don’t think so…if you are evil, then I’m quite the devil!! Both together…NAH…not good!! LOL

  • Ben

    Baking is one of the best therapies for the soul. That’s why you have such a beautiful soul my friend 😀

  • Ivy

    Wow, Deeba you made such a lovely creation with sunflower seeds. This is something new to me as we just eat the salted seeds and don’t make anything else out of them.

  • Glass Slipper Cakery

    Wow! Those look yummy!! I just found your blog and think it is divine! I love your pictures too!!

  • Bharti

    The cookies and the cake look delicious..I love allrecipes too. Yes, you can’t help but feel happy when you look at a sunflower. Sunflower seeds are high in protein …I use to munch on them a lot when I was pregnant. Now days I use them in granola bars. Gawd, I’m rambling!

  • nadia

    I love this post and i love that quote! I ma definetly going to give this a try…this put a smile on my face!

  • Manggy

    I love the quote, Deeba, it’s so true 🙂

    I didn’t know you could make cookies out of sunflower seeds. I always thought they were on the very salty side, like pumpkin seeds 🙂

  • noble pig

    Oh what a combo this looks so wonderful Deeba! I love it, it’s like cookie-cake…thanks for sharing this!

  • Rosie

    This sure is happiness in a cookie Deeba!! You really put a smile on my face reading this post 🙂

    Rosie x

  • Rajani

    the sunflowers look beautiful, and what an unusually lovely way to out sunlower seeds to good use. am definitely going to try this one out. 🙂

  • Pearlsofeast

    Deeba dear as usual a great recipe that tempts me.I really love sunflower and it has a gorgeous look.Ur presention is superb.

    Deeba if u are planning to visit Sydney,then hop into any HOUSE shops in the Malls, They are loaded with baking supplies esp an asile is solely devoted to it.I just loved browsing and loading it to my cart.

  • Diana

    I just found you on Bleeding Espresso! AHHHHHHHHH! I linked you to my blog as fast as my fingers could move … LOVELY FABULOUS. I will be back again and again when my B&B recipes get stale, which they inevitably do!!

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