I realize it’s not Tuesday but with the short week I didn’t get to post this recipe I’ve been meaning to put up.  I found this recipe at the cupcakeproject.com.  Needing to find a way to get rid of all the okra we get each week in our CSA box, I decided to give it a try.

If they look unappetizing in the picture, it’s because they are in real life.  Not to say they weren’t good – it’s hard to make a cookie turn out really badly unless you under- or over-cook them, and of the 5 people I’ve fed them to, only 1 looked dismayed as she bit into it (I think she had preconceived notions about okra in pastry form), but if you read the recipe, the chef describes these cookies as “less a dessert than a snack” and I think that’s true. They aren’t super sweet or decadent, and  you feel a little healthy eating them. Mine came out with a plastic-y sheen to them, but they served their purpose extremely well, using up a vegetable I otherwise would have had to eat raw in my lunch everyday (the only other way I’ve been able to enjoy okra, which gets old fast).  In the picture above, I experimented with adding cocoa powder and chocolate chips, but they turned out better using the original recipe, which is as follows:

Yield: 12 large cookies

• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground fennel
• 1/2 C unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1arge egg
• 1 cup oats, old fashioned or quick (not instant)
• 3/4 cup pulverized raw okra (okra that’s been chopped and food processed so it looks like chunky guacamole – I pulverized part of a defrosted bag of frozen okra)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a small bowl, thoroughly mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, and fennel. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and both sugars until creamy.
4. Beat in vanilla and egg.
5. Slowly mix in the flour mixture until just combined.
6. Fold in the oats and okra.
7. Scoop approximately 1/4 cup balls of batter onto a Silpat or parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Place 6 balls to a sheet and bake one sheet at a time on the center rack for 18 minutes.

Thank you cupcakeproject for solving my okra problem!