Rolled Barley Cookies

Most dishes end up in my kitchen because I had an ingredient and needed to use it. In this instance, I saw the recipe and just had to buy the ingredient.
While these were good for a few days, the birds got more pleasure out of them than we did.

The Nudge does not like chewy cookies so I assumed he would go for these.
He did not. Oh he had a few but then like most of my projects, they end up as animal food.

I am not upset, I wasn't all that thrilled with them either but I loved the rolled barley flakes.
Not a total loss, I have found a granola recipe that I will make as soon as my current bag is eaten.

That's not the only use for these flakes, oh no these will not become bird feed. Think about fruit crisps, biscuits, bread and of course, Cowboy cookies!! Right now the only way to get these into your stomach is through a computer and my favorite place for all things organic and healthy, Nuts.com.

Don't get me wrong, these are not bad cookies, just not great cookies but if you love crisp molasses cookies, you will love these. After the first sheet was baked I tried to add ingredients to make them more palatable to my tastes, and while it did work somewhat, it did not enough for us to finish them.

So, why am I posting a recipe I can't wholeheartedly recommend? I can highly recommend barley flakes and I will highly suggest you buy them, then in every recipe you use oats in, sub in these babies.

Go ahead, ask me why should you spend more money on these, when rolled oats are pretty downright cheap affordable?

I can give you 6 good reasons to eat barley flakes:

1. Barley has less fat
2. Barley has more potassium
3. Tons of more fiber
4.Vitamin A & B-6
5. the GI of barley is 22-29
6. the GI of oats is 58-85

I think of you cooked a bowl of both, you will also find the barley a sweeter grain.
So, while this cookie recipe was simply OK, the barley flakes are a SUPER FOOD!!!

Rolled Barley Cookies
makes 18 (2") cookies

* 2/3 cups flour
* 3/4 cups rolled barley
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* 2/3 cup maple or malt syrup or molasses
* 3/4 cup raisins
* 1/2 cup chocolate chips
* 1 egg
* 1 pinch of baking soda

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. In a bowl mix the flour with the rolled barley, raisins, chocolate chips and the baking soda. In another bowl mix all the liquid ingredients: oil, egg, and syrup.
3. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix gently. Like pancake mix, do not over mix or they will loose their crunchiness.
4. Spoon the mixture on to the tray covered with parchment paper. Bake for about 15 minutes.
5. To get extra crunchiness let the cookies cool down and then put them back into the over for 5 more minutes.