Chewy Apple and Cinnamon Oat Cookies- vegan, no refined sugar

There's nothing quite like home made cookies...

 We haven't had cookies on here for ages, so today (a Sunday) seemed like a good day to change all that! Put my feet up when I get a spare hour at the weekend? -Not me! I'd rather be baking... These are a variation on the coconut oat cookies we posted back in 2011, using gour rather than sugar. The cookies are not overly sweet; you may want to increase the amount of gour. (I did slightly spoil the no-sugar-ness of them by dusting them with icing sugar for the pictures!) The key player in this recipe is the dried apple; I did it myself in our dehydrator rather than than throw away a few apples that were looking a little bruised and past their best for snacking on, but you can buy dried apple rings which would do just as well. I always think oats are a sensible addition to things like cookies because they do slow down the body's absorption of simple sugars somewhat. We got 26 (2 bakers' dozen) wholesome cookies from this recipe: 

500g unhydrogenated vegan margarine
500g organic wholemeal flour
250g gour (try increasing to 300g or maybe even a little more if you have a sweet tooth)
250g porridge oats
100g dried apple
50g lexia raisins
3 rounded tsps ground cinnamon

• Chop the raisins and apples finely and set aside.
• Melt the gour in a sturdy pan on a medium-low flame, stirring to avoid burning it.
• When it's lump-free and completely liquefied turn the heat off.
• Meanwhile, put the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.
• Combine the margarine and the gour and mix with the other ingredients; I got right in there with my hands to make sure everything was thoroughly combined.
• Make 26 balls from the mixture, about the size of pingpong balls.
• Flatten each ball with a spatula on an oiled baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes or so at 200C. (Preheat the oven so it's nice and hot as soon as the cookies go in.)
• Leave to cool if you can wait that long....