May 02, 2013 I worked at a coffee shop during university, and they had cookies brought in by an outside bakery – they called them Kitsilano cookies. The coffee shop is in the Kitsilano neighbourhood in Vancouver, which is basically the Haight-Ashbury of the North, as Canada’s hippie central. Kits folks wear Lululemon head-to-toe, Monday-to-Friday; divide their saturdays between sunrise yoga on the beach, the farmers market, and their community garden; and crunch hardcore on (organic, vegan, gmo-free) granola. So the name befits the biscuits – these cookies are loaded with oats, rolled barley, whole millet, flax, sunflower seeds and dried fruit. I won’t go tossing about the word “healthy”, because let’s face it – the’ve still got their feet firmly planted in delicious butter-and-sugar territory. But they’ve definitely got a leg up, for all their whole grains and seeds. I’ve dreamed of them lots since those coffee-grinding college days, when – at the start of a bleary-eyed 6 am shift – I’d scarf one down chased by a shot of espresso and call it breakfast. This recipe is my riff on the bakery’s version. They’re crunchy-chewy, with lots of interesting texture (I especially love the popping of millet), and morsels of chocolate to take things over the top. The recipe makes a big batch, so feel free to freeze unbaked dough-balls for another time, or freeze the baked cookies – either works beautifully.
