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For years our family has occasionally enjoyed an oatmeal cookie. Once we
went gluten free we omitted oatmeal and so I started looking for an
oatmeal substitute. Here is what I found by trial and error. I
substituted the following for the oatmeal in my recipe with these results:

Soy Textured Vegetable Protein (dry) - The flavor wasn't as bad as some
feared, but it was too crunchy. It absorbed the moisture from the
cookies and they didn't spread out enough. (After reading Dogtor J's
site we decided that we didn't want to eat soy anyway.)

Sunflower seeds - I liked it a lot, but the others in the family wanted
something that tasted more like the "good old oatmeal cookie."

Rice Crunch-ems cereal by Health Valley - The flavor and texture were
good. However, I am hesitant to use prepared cereal because of the cost.
Because there is more air in a cup of Rice Crunch-ems as compared to the
other ingredients they spread out more. You will want to modify the
recipe below to take this into account. I think any of the prepared
flake cereals would work about the same.

Puffed Millet -  The best alternative was puffed millet. Grandpa, for
whom the following recipe is named, even said they were as good as the
old gluten filled version. The flavor and texture was a little better
than the Rice Crunch-ems and the price is much much lower. The only
objection some people might have is that they don't look like oatmeal
cookies. The puffed millet appears as conspicuously WHITE balls
throughout the cookies. We laughed and said if we could color the balls
red and green we could rename them Christmas cookies.

Grandpa cookies ("oatmeal" cookies)

Set oven to 375 degrees. Makes 4 dozen cookies.

1 C Shortening
1 T butter (or shortening)
2 C brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t salt
2 C gluten free flour
1 t baking soda
1 1/2 C Puffed Millet
1 C gluten free chocolate chips
1/2 C raisins or pecans (optional)

Mix Shortening, sugar and eggs. Mix in remaining ingredients. The
mixture is rather dry. Form into balls and drop onto cookie sheet. Bake
at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. If the cookies spread more than you
like, then add more millet, or raisins.

Deborah Martin

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