Lemon Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a big sweet tooth, but I don't eat a lot of sweets because I really try to stay away from refined sugars. I have been this way for about 12 years now. No candy, desserts, sugary cereals, etc. Hence why I work really hard to satisfy my sweet tooth using fruit, dried fruit, and baking with things like maple syrup and agave. I used to just never bake cookies or cakes or anything like that. But now that my children are getting older, and I have a relentless need to use my sourdough starter (because I hate just pouring it down the drain), I have been baking a lot more. I blame Corona. Everything is Cornoa's fault, right?

Speaking of Corona. My school district just announced its plans for the fall....

Fully remote.

Yup, you read that right. Until Salt Lake City is reduced from orange to yellow (even though all the businesses act like it is yellow) we are fully remote. Once we drop from yellow we will move to two days a week in school and the rest remote....

YIKES!

You better believe I just bought a bunch of homeschooling programs. Like legit home schooling programs. My friends and I have done a lot of research and found a program we like and I am excited to start it in the fall with my soon to be kindergartner. I bough language arts, math, science, hand writing, and art. I am nervous about the hand writing because I hold my pencil wrong, so hopefully his preschool teacher taught him...or else we will have two generations of wrong pencil holders.

My plan for school is to actually make a schedule.

YIKES!

Yes, you read that correctly too.

My plan is to make a schedule and do our best to stick to it. I obviously work it around his actual school schedule. This is purely to supplement his learning because I have no idea what it will be like. So many people complained that they felt their kids didn't learn anything last year when it went remote. My sister, who is a teacher, complained that she didn't have the ability to hold her students accountable for anything. She couldn't have deadlines for things to be due etc. So hopefully everyone has taken advantage of the summer months to figure out how to best go forward virtually. Hopefully we can some day get a handle on this virus and go back to normal? But what is normal? Sending kids to school without masks and gloves and being able to have recess is normal.

Anyway, enough about my rant. My plan is to make a schedule to do school whatever days he doesn't do it through the public school system. We bought a new house and are currently remodeling it (I will write about that another time), so we are currently living with my parents. Once we move into our new place, my plan is to turn one of the basement bedrooms into school. Once of them has this built in vanity that I will use as his desk and then I can hang stuff from the walls for our units etc. That way, when we go in there, it is school, not play. Hopefully it works. Fingers crossed. But as long as this crazy home school/virtual school is going on, I don't think I will be working at my regular job that I used to go to before the pandemic job very often. Because I will be a school teacher. Yay!

Anyway, this recipe is simple enough. It does require sourdough discard. I am not quite sure how you would go about substituting for that. Sourdough discard is a liquid that acts like a solid. You don't lessen your liquid amounts when you are using it. It is strange. For example. I throw about 1/2 c of discard into my regular pancake/waffle recipe. I do not change anything else. I use the exact same recipe, I just add the discard and it comes out the same. It is strange. My best guess for a substitute is to leave it out, keep everything else the same and maybe add 1 T of apple cider vinegar to add that little bit of pucker.

Ingredients

1/3 c coconut oil

1/4 - 1/3 c agave nectar

1/2 T flax seed meal

1.5 T water

1/2 c sourdough discard

1 c whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp lemon extract

1 c quick oats

1/2 c chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Combine flax seed meal and water and set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, cream together coconut oil and agave.

4. Add sourdough discard, flour, baking soda, salt and combine.

5. Add flax egg, almond and lemon extracts and stir to combine.

6. Fold in oats and chocolate chips.

7. Roll in to balls, place on a baking tray, and flatten.

8. Cook for 10 minutes.

9. ENJOY