Vegan Pumpkin (chocolate) Oatmeal Cookies

I'm only a couple of days into this Vegan Mofo, and I I have to come clean.

1. I have eaten not one, but 2 completely NON VEGAN meals already
2. I have spent much of my mental food energy bemoaning all the delicious things I "cannot" eat this month, and eyeing people's brownies and mac and cheese with pathetic desperation

But obviously Vegan Mofo is about all the amazing things you CAN eat while sticking to a 100% plant-based diet, so I'm going to share my (so far) all-time favorite vegan baking recipe, including my gratuitous chocolate addition improvements.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies from Vegan With a Vengeance
2 cups all purpose flour (I use whole-wheat flour, still delish)
1 1/3 cups rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cups canola oil
2 TBS molasses
1 cup canned pumpkin, or cooked pureed pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBS ground flaxseed (optional)
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 cup raisins

I leave out the raisins b/c I never have any, and add 1 chopped up 100% Dark chocolate bar. 100% Dark chocolate is vegan, and so are some 70+ % bars, but check the labels. Some are made with milk fat. Also note that 100% Dark chocolate is suuuuuuper bitter on its own. Don't even try a nibble - you'll want to spit it out, and then feel bad for wasting even a crumb of chocolate. But mixed in with other sweet ingredients, it is quite an adequate smack of chocolateyness, complete with all those lovely anti-oxidants. Some very strict vegans do not use refined white sugar because the refining process of cane-based sugar may involve charcoal made from animal bones. I had some "raw" sugar, so I used that.

Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly grease 2 baking sheets
Mix together the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and spices.

In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin and vanilla (and flaxseed, if using) until very well combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 3 batches, folding to combine. Fold in the walnuts and raisins (and chocolate, if using.)

chopping up the suuuuperdark chocolate bar

Drop by tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets. They don't spread very much so they can be placed only an inch apart. Flatten the tops of the cookies with a fork or your fingers to form a cookie shape. Bake for 16 minutes at 350 degrees. If you are using 2 sheets of cookies on 2 levels of your oven, rotate the sheets half way through for even baking.

Remove from the oven, cool on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Let them cool! They taste better when they've had some time to set up.

Enjoy your vegan treat! Yay for yummy baked goods.