Raisin Coconut Butterless Oat Cookies
You’ve probably noticed a change on my sidebar since a while now. I’ve been seeing and reading so many helpful cooking tips and tricks since I got the Chef’s Tip widget. Yesterday, as I was reading and answering your lovely comments, the widget displayed this tip about substituting apple sauce for butter that instantly caught my eye. I knew that this was possible (never tried it though) but the author of this tip (Laura or laura I believe) also said something about using this substitution when making cookies, she said that you can’t get them to be crispy enough. So it works well for cakes (no crispiness required) but not so well with cookies as everyone would expect them to be crispy. Well that’s when something went “click” in my head. Although I do enjoy crispy cookies, the idea of a cake-like cookie sounded quite interesting.
Before being able to acknowledge what I was doing my right hand grabbed a pen and the nearest piece of paper – a clue for my brain that I’m about to write a recipe and he’d better keep up 
So he did and this was what I came up with…
Ingredients
- 90 g old-fashioned oats
- 50 g unsweetened desiccated coconut
- 70 g raisins
- 180 g pastry flour
- 65 g vanilla-flavoured powdered sugar
- 16 g vanilla sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 7 Tbsp homemade apple sauce
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2/3 tsp salt
Directions
Soak the raisins in some water for 10 minutes or so. Discard the extra water.
Mix all the dry ingredients together (oats, powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, desiccated coconut, baking powder and salt)
Crack the egg in another mixing bowl and beat it lightly with a fork. Toss in the raisins (after you’ve discarded the water) and the apple sauce. Mix a little bit with the fork. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well with a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon.
Line your microwave crisp plate with microwave safe silicone-coated parchment paper. Take a spoon of the mixture and drop it on the lined plate then use your palm and fingers to form into a 1-1 ¼ cm thick disc (6-7 cm diameter). Repeat the “spoon-operation” another five times making sure you leave at least 3 cm free space between the cookies.
Microwave for 7 minutes at 500 W and 2 ½ minutes on crisp. Please note that this baking time will only work for six cookies. If you’ll be baking more or less cookies at a time you’ll need to adjust the baking time accordingly.
Let them cool on cooling racks.
Enjoy! 
wow… looks so good… but, really, no hint of crispiness at all?:)
Hi Mikky! There was a slight crispy hint thanks to the oats.
That’s amazing you can create a recipe like that. I can barely follow them. These look divine!
So not only did you go butterless, but you went oven-less too! Lore, you’re living on the wild side with these cookies. I have never had cookies in the microwave, how did the crispiness turn out? I’m excited to hear about it.
So you’ve a male brain, huh?
These sound really interesting – how did they taste? Were they easy to eat? I’d be worried about them falling apart!
Lore, I am sitting reading your post with a hot cup of coffee and no cookie in site. I adore oats and coconut and cake like cookies, so know I would love these. I’ll be over in a 1/2 hour, time enough for you to make another batch.
Duckie – I’m not very good with following recipes either. They only recipes I can follow are the ones I come up with
Adam – You’ll find that most of my cookies are baked in the microwave since my oven is officially broken
As I said these are cake like cookies with only a slight crispiness, however that is mostly because I used apple sauce instead of butter and not because these were baked in the microwave. You can produce pretty crispy cookies in the microwave tough. Check out my “dessert” tag 
Kittie – The irony of it, right?
There were as easy to eat as any cookie. No, they didn’t fall apart, they look and hold as nicely as any cookie would 
Kim – Sending virtual cookies your way
I love the idea of not using butter and still getting a delicious cookie. I think the arteries might be happier too
what a coincidence! I just took photos of my cookies that I baked yesterday.
I think I’ll try this one, soon!
btw, for the quark with strawberry pudding that I made, I stored it in fridge around 2 hours before serving (one hour is also possible, depends how cold that you want)
Lore, I always enjoy every your post. Beside nice photos, you have many cooking tricks. They are very helpful and interesting.
I am so sad I couldn’t join the event of “The original recipes round-up” last time. I was too busy to…hope one of mine appear in the next though…
Have a nice day!
This is an interesting cookie, I love the idea of a cake-like treat.
Mmmm butterless cookies. Does this mean I can eat a whole batch in one sitting? I want some.
These cookies look yummy! I like the things you packed into these cookies too.
OMG….they look sooo good! and less guilt too..
WOW,..THY LOOK YUM,..ND BUTTERLES TOO,..
Wow Lore, these look terrific and I can’t believe there’s no butter hiding in these. I can’t wait to try them soon!
they look super cakey, which is awesome! i prefer a softer cookie, especially one that’s low fat and tastes like coconut.
Bridgett – I prefer happy arteries
Sefa – Can’t wait to see your cookies
and try your quark-strawberry pudding now that I know all the details.
Van – Awe, that’s so sweet of you to say, thank you very much
Don’t worry about it, I know how things get when you’re busy.
Cathy – I love the idea even better after munching these cookies
Jude – Sure, as many as it takes to make you happy
Little Corner Of Mine, Lakshmi, Notyet100, Jenny and Grace – So there’s nothing to keep you from giving them a try, right?
Hi Dear,
Cookies are awesome. Looks like melt in mouth.
That substitution sounds a good one, I will keep it in mind!
Hooray for experimentation! If you want to retain a bit of crispenss, do a 33%/66% butter:applesauce mixture and see what happens. Fruit purees generally do a good job mimicking fats in baked goods because the fiber holds on to water, which contributes to a moist mouthfeel. In the case of cookies, however, the functional purpose of the fat is a little different. Unless you like soft cookies . . . (which I do!)
oh i love this lore!! would you believe a dozen times i tried cookie recipes on line but i was always a failure. your recipe seemed easy and its butterless! i’ll definitely try this
ps, the chef widget look cool and informative! i love it too!
In the microwave, really? That’s cool! I’ve been doing the apple sauce- no butter thing since I’ve read about it. It’s like the banana -no egg thing. Great for moist things but also I don’t mind it on cookies, since some thimes I like soft cookies. Wonderful flavours on yours and really pretty!
I cant help but drool….Such a healthy, nutritious cookie
I love this idea, these look seriously gorgeous!
Oh, Lore — this is no fun.
Cookies are supposed to be bad for you!!
Were these as good as you’d hoped??
Lore, I’ve never baked cookies in the microwave
But yours look good. Very original method of cooking!
Good ideas always come from female brain. They are the ones which give birth to new ideas!!!
I saw the tip but what is apple sauce?
Lore,butterless sounds good,love the combo and u made it in microwave.Great.
An interesting idea – thanks Lore.
Lubna – They did and batch after batch they were quickly gone
Holler – Try using it sometime.
Chou – Yup, I do too
Dhanggit – You’ve probably tried classic cookie recipes but if you like soft cookies too you could give these a try
Clumbsy, Sukanya and Laura – Glad you guys like them
Lo – Lol, so I suppose I’m now officially a party breaker
. They were better than I tought they’d turn out but hey this is one of those nice surprises when experimenting in the kitchen.
Vera – A broken oven forces you to get creative and fast
Ivy – Can’t argue with that
Well it’s a sauce made of apples, you can buy it in some countries but I prefer making it at home.
Shibani and Cakelaw – It’s great to see you like the idea as much as I do
This baking is right up my alley. Plus I learned you can subsitute apple sauce for butter. Great recipe and the picture sold me.
Wow Lore those look awesome and you used the microwave for this fantastic…I have been using applesauce regularly in my cookies and can attest to the fact that they do make cookies soft…luckily my family likes them this way
Jeff and Usha – Glad you like them and hope you’ll bake a batch or two soon
I have always preferred raisin cookies over say chocolate chip cookies. the tip with the apple sauce is a great one, thanks for sharing.