Nutty Oat Nuggets

Most of the times, I try to bake healthy oat cookies but there are other times I just fall off the wagon. So, from the get go, there is nothing healthy about these cookies! They are just sweet, delicious, chock full of nuts, nuggets of decadence. Note to self, do not make too often! They are high in fat, some of the good kind, others not so good. They have to be rationed to maybe one per day, and you have to resist the temptation to eat more! So stressful!

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats

½ cup oat bran

½ cup flax meal

½ cup self-rising flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

12 chocolate chunks

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup brown sugar tightly packed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 lb shortening

¼ lb butter

Directions

1.      Stir the sugar and water over low heat in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla, and allow to cool.

2.      Mix all the dry ingredients, nuts, seeds, butter and shortening, in a food processor bowl. Pulse a couple of times until the mixture is the consistency of coarse meal.  

3.      With the food processor going, add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and mix. Place a teaspoon of dough into a jumbo muffin liner, put a chocolate chunk in the center then cover with another teaspoon or two of dough.

4.      Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Decrease the oven temperature to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and put the cookies back in to bake for another 45 minutes.