It’s almost spring & it certainly feels like it already.

My friend Gowri, who’s vegan, came over for a visit today. I wanted to make her something yummy for merienda so I tried out this thumbprint cookie recipe. I substituted more pecans in place of the rolled oats as I only had 1/2 a cup left. They turned out delicious! We ate four in one sitting, with tea of course.

[ Ingredients ]
- 1 1/2 cups pecans
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- fruit juice sweetened jam (I used lingonberry jam on some & strawberry preserves on the others)

[ Process ]
- preheat oven to 350°F
- put the pecans & rolled oats into a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground
- transfer into a bowl & add whole wheat pastry flour, canola oil, maple syrup & salt, stir to combine well
- use an ice-cream scooper to scoop out the dough, I filled the scooper only a little bit over half
-scoop out onto 2 baking sheets, spacing cookies 2 inches apart
- press your thumb gentry down the center of each cookie to make an indentation
- spoon a scant teaspoon of jam into each indentation
- bake cookies until golden brown and just firm around the edges, 15 to 20 minutes
- transfer to a rack to let cool completely
- serve immediately or store between layers of waxed paper in an airtight container

Makes about 14 cookies. I think I’m gonna make more soon.

Enjoy!