“Cookies? Really? It’s the first of the year! No one wants to hear about cookies! They’re the Devil!”

Well, maybe other cookies, but these cookies are special! (Isn’t everything I make?)

For Christmas, I gave my hubby a “make-your-own-beer” kit. This was no liquid extract, this was using real grains that he boiled and strained to make his beer. Well the company I bought the kit from tells you how to dry out the spent grain and make a flour out of them and even has recipes on their website for using the spent grain flour.  If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend making the spent grain flour. It smells like Grape Nuts! Read more about Brooklyn Brew Shop here.

If you don’t have spent grain flour, ( and lets face it, not everybody has spent grain laying around), you could make these cookies with just whole wheat flour.

My main inspiration for making these was finding a bag of organic rolled oats that had been hidden behind my flour/sugar jars and with it being just about full, I couldn’t bring myself to throw it out. I had already planned on making the peanut butter cookies from the website, so I figured “why not? I’ll just make oatmeal too since I’m already dirtying up mixing bowls and baking sheets!”

My first thought was oatmeal chocolate chip, but I’m trying to cut back on the sugar and since I was going to use agave instead of white sugar in the recipe, it didn’t make since to put chocolate in it!

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, stir together 6 tablespoons of softened butter, 3/4 cup agave nectar, and 1 egg until well blended. Next stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Now stir in 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour a little at a time, then slowly add 3/4 cup of spent grain flour ( if not using spent grain flour, then add 1+ 1/2 cups whole wheat flour). Next stir in 1 cup toasted rolled oats and 2/3 cup raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls on to greased cookie sheets ( this filled one and a half of my cookie sheets ) and bake for 12 to 13 minutes. I would check the bottom of a cookie after about 9 minutes to make sure they don’t get too brown!

These are a tasty dessert, but are awesome at breakfast, too!