Another Attempt At Pomegranate’s Cowgirl Cookies!

If you live in Phoenix and have never been to Pomegranate Café (and are a healthy eater like me), you are missing out. If you’ve been there and never tried their Cowgirl Cookies, well, that should be your next goal in life. They are seriously the best cookies ever! I tried to make them myself last year, and they didn’t turn out anything like them! They were flat and not as full of goodness (chocolate chips, raisins, pecans, walnuts, or whatever nuts they use) like the ones at Pomegranate are. I’ve been thinking about trying to make them again, and finally did tonight!

I got everything I might need out and put it all within arm’s reach on my counter.

Yup, I have a really small kitchen. One deal-breaker when it comes to purchasing a home sometime in the future. MUST have BIG kitchen with PLENTY of counter space and an ISLAND!! Non-negotiable my friends. I can only take so much of this clutter!! The good news is that I was able to sit on my trusty stool while making the cookie dough!

“Heeeeeeeey!”

I adapted this recipe from one I found on LiveLearnLoveEat.com. I also read about refrigerating the dough before baking it on this website. Like I said above, my first batch last year turned out flat. I was hoping this would help my cause. The cookies at Pomegranate must rise while they bake or something, look!

So this recipe is really easy:

Cowgirl Cookies (Attempt #2)

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ tea ground ginger

½ tea ground cloves

1/8 tea allspice

2 ½ cups (total) of dark chocolate chips, raisins, walnuts, pecans, almonds or any nut you like in any ratio you prefer

1 flax egg (2 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons warm water)

2/3 cup apple sauce

¼ cup Splenda brown sugar blend (or ½ cup sugar of your choice)

¼ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

½-1 tablespoon honey or agave

1 teaspoon vanilla

(pre-heat oven to 350*)

First, you put all of the dry ingredients (including the nuts, raisins and chocolate chips) in a large bowl, and mix together.

Then, put the 2 tablespoons of flax seed into the 3 tablespoons of warm water and whisk. Wait a few minutes for it to thicken up. (This is a trick I’ve never seen before. It is a substitute for an egg. Pretty cool, huh?) While you wait for it to thicken, you mix the apple sauce, Splenda, almond milk, honey and vanilla until uniform, then add in the flax egg.

Next, you slowly add in wet ingredients to dry ones in a standing mixer, and mix until you get a big clump of dough. It will be a dryer dough, and that’s ok.  If you get a little bit of flour left on the bottom of the bowl that the mixer doesn’t reach, that’s ok. Transfer the dough to another bowl, and throw the flour away.

Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes. This will help the cookies to not flatten out while baking.

Grease a cookie sheet, or lay down parchment paper. Form 2 inch balls of dough and place on sheet about an inch apart. You have to press firmly on them so that they stay together since the dough is so dry.

Bake for 12 minutes at 350* F. Let cool on wire rack. I got 20 cookies out of my batch. (Plus the random leftovers on the right up there that I ate right out of the oven!)

See!! Random little cookie didn’t even make it long enough to be in the picture .

Now unfortunately, these still didn’t turn out like Pomegranate’s. They did, however, end up being very good! I just don’t know how they do it….I will keep trying and someday, I’ll duplicate them! Until then, I guess I’ll have to pay $3 per cookie if I want to get the real thing .

For cookies, these are pretty healthy. In fact, I will probably have a couple of these in the morning with a banana or fresh juice for breakfast for the next few days.

What did you make for dinner for your family/yourself this weekend?? Leave a comment below and let me know!

‘Til next time….

Happy Trails!

Stacey