stovetop choco oat cookies

These days, I've been experimenting with baking without an oven. This limits what recipes we can make, but also gives us plenty of opportunities for learning how to do things differently.

We prepared the 'dough' on the stovetop, using a cast-iron pan. Any kind of pan will do, we just really like cast iron. The resulting texture is very moist compared to a traditional cookie, but it is very delicious and requires few tools to prepare.

Recipe notes:

Oats: Only use quick-cooking oats, as rolled oats or steel-cut oats will not absorb moisture as quickly, and the 'dough' won't bind. Making your own quick-oats is easy, just pop some rolled oats in a blender, or pulverize with a mortar and pestle. Don't overblend, as you'll end up with oat powder.

Vegan butter: Vegan butter adds flavor. It's possible to substitute with coconut oil, but it will alter the flavor. To make your own vegan butter, look for the recipe in The Homemade Vegan Pantry by Miyoko Schinner. It's possible to omit the butter entirely and to double the quantity of peanut butter.

Cocoa powder: If you have a sensitivity to caffeine use carob powder instead. Switching to carob will alter the flavor of the cookie — in a good way.

Sugar: You can substitute with any other kind of sugar, but if you choose to add commercial brown sugar reduce the added water content (a little).

Soy milk: We make this recipe with just water often, but adding soy milk (or any other nut milk) makes for a richer flavor.

Peanut butter: We like peanut butter a lot, so we add it in everything. We use 100% peanut butter. If you use a sweetened variety, you can use less sugar.