A Vision of Beans

Let us begin with a toast. Raise your cup of tea or diluted cranberry juice (Reems drinks of choice) and join me in toasting the success of this blog, our recipes, our future meals, our extraordinary capacity for savouring the pleasures of food. "To Reems Eats!"

Recently, R2 confessed that she was struggling to increase the bean intake on Lampson Street. Brent wanted more legumes and less cans. What followed was a very unbeanerific experience, involving dried beans and an inadaquate soak. I'm fuzzy on the story but R2 can supply the details. Anyhow, it is with the Lampson Crew in mind that I provide this recipe for Bean Cookies, modified from Julie Von Rosendaal's Grazing Cookbook.

Bean Cookies
2 cup oats
-- Mulch in a food processor

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 salt
--Add to oats and whiz in processor. Transfer to a large bowl.

1 14oz can white kidney, navy, or cannellini beans rinsed and drained
--Pulse in food processor.

1/4 cup butter or margarine softened
--Add to beans. Pulse.

3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
--Add to bean mixture and pulse on. Pour bean mixture and stir by hand until just combined. Do not over mix!

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4-1/2 cup walnuts or pecans
Add some variation of the above goodies to the batter and stir until JUST blended.

When you drop the cookies, be sure to flatten them a bit with your hand as they are a hearty cookie and won't spread on their own.

Bake at 325 for 14-16 minute. They should be set around the edges but still soft in the middle when you take them out.

I'm thinking of trying to cut the sugar to 1/2 a cup and then adding 2 TBsp corn syrup to the wet once it comes out of the food processor. A lot of Rosendaal's other recipes use corn syrup and it seems to moisten up the cookies and make them chewier.