Vegan Bananadoodle Cookie: On Dreams Interrupted

Many of my female friends are very successful engineers, executives, lawyers, principals, directors, musicians and doctors.  I am surrounded by these high achieving folks and I love them to death.  But the other day, one good friend asked me, "When you're done with the kids, and they are at school, are you going to go back to work?"  Right now, my job is raising Son and Daughters and working the few hours a week that I do with my students.  A full time job it is not.  My full time job of cooking, cleaning, teaching the kids, disciplining, chaueffeuring and yelling, I am able to have because of Husband's support and desire to have me with the children.  But the question is, after they are grown up, more self-sufficient, will I go back to a traditional job?

My regular job of a high school English teacher, the one I worked hard to train for, the one I worked so hard at - I'm not sure.  I loved teaching, but I think the idea of being completely exhausted and unable to handle children after I got home, would not be a good experience for my children.  After teaching more than 200 kids in a day, the last thing I think I might want to see when I got home would be more children.  I don't know how parents who are teachers do it - I know so many that do, but I think I might not be such a good person to be around.

But that is not to say that I don't dream big.  I have a lot of fanciful dreams in my head, of what I might do after the kids are a bit older and I have a bit more time on my hand.  I think of going back to school and studying to get my PhD...as I do love studying and learning.  That is one idea that appeals.  Although taking the GRE again and trying to get my 40 year old brain around all those questions may exclude me from even being able to apply, but again, I dream big.  Maybe, just maybe, my blog will be big enough that I can get a cookbook out of it.  Maybe I'll be able to pursue that full time in that way.  Perhaps I'll have the opportunity to write a children's book (another crazed dream of mine) and find joy (and possibly money) doing that. Perhaps I'll open a business and do something food related, helping families to really cook for themselves and train people how to cook. Perhaps Jamie Oliver and I can do a project together where we go from home to home really getting people excited about cooking.  I'm not sure.  But I like to dream big.

In the meanwhile, I'll run around and do what I like to do the most - try and keep the natives at home happy.  When they are restless and dissatisfied I get restless and dissatisfied, but when they are comfortable and at peace, I find myself very much the same way.  Trying to keep Son and Daughters satisfied was one of the reasons I came up with this recipe.  Son decided that he doesn't like chocolate so the Vegan Banana Oatmeal Cookie was something that he refused to eat.  He asked very politely (VERY politely) for a cookie - and I thought I'd create one for him without chocolate that he could munch on joyfully and happily.  These are deliciously crisp (the day they are out of the oven -less so the following day) with a chewy inside and a lightly banana flavor and a snickerdoodle texture.  I can't even tell that they are vegan on the texture and Son gobbled down 3 in a row.  Daughters who don't need to eat vegan LOVED it and demanded more.

Vegan Bananadoodle
adapted from Tish Boyle's The Good Cookie
Makes 4 dozen

Cookie Dough
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
2 large bananas. mashed
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Topping
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or lightly grease.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Using either a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a hand mixer, beat the oil, sugar and molasses at medium high speed until light, about 1 1/2 minutes. Add bananas beating well after addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Scrape down sides of the bowl and beat 30 seconds more. At low speed, add the flour mixture and beat until just blended.

In a bowl, make topping by mixing cinnamon and sugar together.

Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes (or up to a week in the fridge.) Shape the cookie into 1 inch balls (about 1 tablespoon of dough.) Roll each ball into cinnamon sugar mixture to coat completely and arrange balls on the baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Flatten each cookie into a 2 inch disk. Bake cookies one sheet at time, 14- 18 minutes until tops are crinkly and they are puffed and lightly browned around the edges. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.

 

Printable recipe

Munching on a few of these while I figure out which of my dreams might come true.