This morning I woke up to the sensual aroma of Oatmeal Raisin cookies!  The dehydrator was pushing out these amazing smells that quickly awakened my senses.  They smelled so warm and delicious.  My husband had one after lunch and he loved it, which he isn’t to fond of oats.  So that is a great sign.  A friend ours, Jason,  had one and he said it was amazing.  He shared that Oatmeal Raisin cookies are one of his all time favorites.  So,  when someone compliments a creation like that, it’s the best kind of all.  We all have childhood favorite foods that carry on into adulthood.  Those foods are most likely cooked foods that are loaded with unhealthy fats, sugars and flours.  So when someone takes a bite of a raw, healthy creation and it immediately takes them back to an old-time favorite comfort food (cooked version) and find it just as good, well, need I really say more?

Raw outs are becoming more available on the market.  If you are truthfully concerned about consuming only raw ingredients be sure to really double-check with the manufacture.  Most oats are lightly steamed to prolong their shelf life.  You can read a short snippet here about different oats.

Yields 12 large ice scoop cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups oats,gluten-free
• 1 cup oat flour ( see below)
• 1 cup apple puree (see below)
• 3/4 cup raw almond butter
• 1/4 cup raw agave nectar
• 1  1/2 tsp  ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup raisins

Preparation:

1. **Make your own oat flour using your food processor.  Pour in  1 cup of oats and process to a fine powder.
2. **Make your own apple puree using your food processor by placing your diced and cored apples ( you can leave the peel on ) in the FP, using your “s” blade, process to small to medium pieces.
3. In a medium-sized bowl combine all the ingredients and mix well.
4. Using an ice cream scoop, place your dough on the teflex sheets of your dehydrator trays.
5. Dehydrate for 1 hour at 145 degrees, then decrease the temperature to 105 degrees for 8-10 hours.  It depends on how thick your cookies are.   They won’t dehydrate to a crispy cookie due to the fat content in the almond butter.
6. About 4 hours in,  turn your cookies over onto just the mesh dehydrator sheet and continue dehydrating to your desire texture.
7. I recommend storing these in a sealed container in the fridge due to the remaining moisture in the cookie.  I like to wrap each cookie individually in plastic wrap.  This makes it easy to grab one and head out the door, having a healthy snack in hand for later.  Plus,  because there is still moisture in this cookie, they tend to stick together a bit if stacked on one another.

You can see the difference in color from the beginning stage of dehydrating to the completed cookie.