This Community Recipe is Mashie’s Spelt Oatmeal Cookies. These hearty, chewy cookies are a satisfying treat. You can vary the recipe to your taste by making it vegan and choosing nuts, fruits and chocolate to mix in.
Community Recipes is a recurring feature where we share your vegan recipes on the Jewish Food Hero blog. If you want to share a recipe in this series, pitch us your idea here. This series is all about sharing healthy plant-based and vegan recipes. We are creating a positive community around food and sharing.
A story about these cookies
My last Shabbat dinner in Cambodia was at Chabad Cambodia at Rabbi Benzion Butman and Rebbetzin Mashie Butman’s table. Mashie served a beautiful and delicious meal followed by these Spelt Oatmeal Cookies. My daughter Yaël and I loved Mashie’s Spelt Oatmeal Cookies – If not for Shabbat, I would have asked Mashie if I could have a take-away bag of these delicious cookies.
Since then, I have been making them as our go-to treat at home. I make a batch and put them in the freezer so we can enjoy them for two weeks and have cookies for Shabbat.
All About Mashie Butman
Mashie and her husband, together with their children, run the Chabad Jewish Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It is the only Jewish presence in the country, being there for every Jew.
Mashie grew up in a Chabad family in Chicago Il, the eldest of 10. She studied in Chabad institutions in Chicago, New York, Israel and Vienna. Her husband, Rabbi Benzion Butman, grew up in Israel. They now live in Cambodia with their 7 children, running the Chabad Center. Alongside mothering her children, Mashie enjoys teaching, art, baking and keeping in touch with childhood friends.
All about Mashie’s Spelt Oatmeal Cookies
For Mashie, cooking is a labor of love for the people she loves. Her favorite cooking resource is calling her mother! When she uses cookbooks, she often turns to Spice and Spirit Jewish cookbook,
and Kosher by Design by Susie Fishbein.
Mashie’s Spelt Oatmeal Cookies recipe came from her aunt, who runs Chabad in Rancho California. Mashie tweaked the recipe a bit to make a healthier version. She says this is one of her go-to’s when looking to send someone a care package. She also bakes up a batch every time her family travels home to bring back to relatives.
Variations for Mashie’s Spelt Oatmeal Cookies
- Lower the sugar: depending on your desired level of sweetness, decrease the sugar to ¾ cup or ½ cup. I tried this and the sweetness is good at these lower sugar levels.
- Change the texture: Using a food processor creates a more dense cookie because you are essentially grinding the whole oats into oat flour – so the oats soak up the liquid. I prefer the taste and look of the cookie made in the food processor.
- Chill your coconut oil – Depending on the climate and season where you live, coconut oil is liquid at room temperature. In the fridge the oil is more of a creamy solid. This affects the texture of the cookie. In baking, I prefer using chilled, solid coconut oil rather than liquid.
- Add ins: Raisins, cranberries or chocolate chips – all yield delicious results
- Increase protein: add any nuts you like, broken into chunks
- Make is vegan: use flax seed eggs (directions below)
- Size: you can make these as bigger cookies or smaller cookies – I like the smaller size (approx 20 grams or 1.5 tablespoon per cookie)
- Regular ingredients: I could not find coconut sugar, so I used natural cane sugar and this worked well/
How to make a flax-egg
Mashie’s Spelt Oatmeal Cookies recipe uses eggs. You can make this recipe vegan with flax eggs – a nutritious and successful alternative to hens eggs in baking. The great news is they are also really simple to make! In a small cup or bowl, mix a tablespoon of ground flax seed with three tablespoons of water. Leave to stand for 5 minutes or so, then use in place of egg in your recipe.
Ingredients focus
Coconut oil: When you need to use oil, coconut is great choice. It has a mild taste of coconut, and its high smoking point makes it an ideal choice for frying and roasting.
Coconut sugar: This trendy ingredient has a lower glycemic index than regular sugar – meaning you won’t get sudden glucose spikes in your bloodstream.
Spelt flour: Spelt is an ancient grain. The husk is tough which protects and maintains its nutritional content. It has a nuttier, earthier flavor than regular wheat flour.
PrintMashie’s Spelt Oatmeal Cookies
- Author: Mashie Butman
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 22-28 minutes
- Total Time: 6 minute
- Yield: 30–40 depending on size 1x
Ingredients
1 cup (150g) spelt flour
3/4 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp (ceylon) cinnamon
1/2 cup (110g) coconut oil
1 cup (200g) coconut sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
2 cups oats
Mix-ins: Chocolate chips, raisins, chopped nuts or dried fruit, as desired
Instructions
Preheat the oven 325 F – 156 C.
In one bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and oats.
In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix.
Fold in any mix-ins you want to use until combined.
Shape into balls and place on a parchment paper lined baking pan. You can use a teaspoon or tablespoon as a measure, or weight our 20g or 30g balls.
Gently press the balls flat.
Bake in the oven for 22-28 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are slightly golden brown.
Leave to cool before serving. Store extras in the freezer.
Keywords: cookie, oatmeal, spelt flour, flax egg
More Jewish Food Hero Community Recipes
Sometimes we all need a little inspiration to mix up our regular recipe rotation. Our Community Recipes feature is for just that – to share our favorites and hear from a variety of people in our community. Don’t forget to get in touch to share your vegan recipe too!
Check out these other recipes from our community:
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