It is no secret that I looooove me some cookies.
In fact, Eric calls me the vegan cookie monster.
Almost every night after dinner I take a couple cookies out of the freezer while Eric boils some water in the kettle. We enjoy a cookie with our piping hot tea and we catch up. This has become a nightly ritual as the weather gets chilly and we resist every urge to crank up the heat. Our NCIS-a-thons now require a couple extra blankets and a furball who is content to sleep at my feet.
Or in a box…
I’m not just any cookie monster though, I like delicious and wholesome cookies. [Eric always did say I have high expectations…]
Glancing at my recipes page, I have made plenty of healthy cookies over the past two years, such as…
- The Ultimate Oatmeal Raisin Cookie (top left)
- Pumpkin Pie Banana Chunk Cookies (top right)
- Banana Apricot Spelt Oatmeal Cookies (bottom left)
- Raw Energy Cookie Bites (bottom right)
All delicious, all wholesome.
Last night, I whipped up a healthy cookie recipe from 101 Cookbooks that I have been meaning to try for a while.
I will not rest until I have made every healthy cookie alive! muhauha.
Healthy Cookie Bites
These bite-sized cookies do not contain any added sugar, dairy, flour, or eggs. Because they are not overly sweet, they make a wonderful everyday cookie and pair well with almond milk, tea, or hot cocoa. No sugar crashes here!
Adapted from 101 Cookbooks.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 large, ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, warm (or olive oil)
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/3 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
- 3 tbsp coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped
Directions: Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl mash the bananas, and then mash in the vanilla and softened coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, chocolate, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. The dough is very loose and does not hold together well, but don’t worry about that. I took a couple tsp of the dough in my hand and gently formed a ball and squeezed it together as much as I could. Place 1 inch apart on baking sheet. Bake for 14 minutes until bottoms are golden. Let cool for about 20 minutes to set. Makes about 17 bite-sized cookies.
Nutritional info: (Approx. per bite, makes 17 bites): 59 kcals, 2.8 grams fat, 1 gram protein, 2 grams sugar, 1 gram fibre.
Gather up the beautiful, wholesome ingredients…
Bonus points for spotty bananas!
First, mash up the bananas with the softened coconut oil and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients.
Add dry to wet or wet to dry. It really makes no difference here.
Mix.
After mixing, you will notice that the mixture does not stick together like traditional cookie dough.
Fear not!
For You, are a baking goddess.
I took a couple teaspoons of the oat mixture and gently pressed it into a ball with my fingers. The oat mixture falls apart a bit, but all will work out in the end.
I made 17 cookie bites.
Bake for about 14 mins. at 350F. The bottoms will be slightly golden brown.
Let them cool for about 20 mins. so the cookies can firm up a bit. These are delicate bites!
They are irresistibly cute.
At first taste, I wasn’t sure if I loved the cookies, but they grew on me after I got used to the subtle sweetness. The chunks of chocolate are key in this recipe and add a little oomph. After my second bite, I was hooked and really appreciated that they were more of a snack cookie and not a dessert cookie.
I say, there are times for snack cookies and there are times for dessert cookies.
When I told Eric I made cookies ‘without sugar’, he said, ‘That is disturbing.’
After trying them, he said they were ‘good, but could be a bit sweeter’.
While I agree that they aren’t your typical sweet cookie, I think they serve the purpose of an everyday, healthy cookie. For that reason, I wouldn’t change them too much! if you can appreciate a wholesome taste, you will enjoy these bites a lot. :)
After I enjoyed a few, I popped these into the freezer for quick snacks during the week.
By the way, they are fun vehicles for nut butter hats too!
Do you have any ‘go-to’ cookie recipes that you make time and time again or do you tend to try something new each time?
I tend to try a new recipe each time, mostly for the sake of new blog content. ;) But, I often look at recipes in my archives and I always find myself saying, ‘It has been way too long!’
Those are the perfect size! How cute!! I always fall back on any cookie recipes I grew up watching my mom make:)
I just jumped off the couch and made these! I’m so glad my healthy pantry contains all the ingredients (ok, I stole the banana from my hubbie). Oops, I accidentally add an extra 1/4 tsp of salt so we’ll see how that goes.
It’s a very stressful election night, can you tell?
Remind me to thank you for the recipe this weekend! ;)
I’m still experimenting with finding my favourite cookie recipes – so no go-to recipe for me yet. I have been wanting to make these for a while! My recipes are usually quite ‘wholesome’ tasting, so I think i’d appreciate the flavour. Love the nut butter hats too :)
Heidi xo
Nice recipe :) Anything that goes good with nut butter is okay in my books!
Chocolate, coconut, almonds, and vanilla– how could you go wrong! These look wonderful, Angela. Thank you for sharing another great recipe. I have some bananas that need using up so I think I”ll be trying these tomorrow!
“I tend to try a new recipe each time, mostly for the sake of new blog content.”–
Oh that’s the cardinal curse of bloggers…always having to come up with something new, and one-up our old recipes. Even when old recipe is perfectly fine. In fact, it’s amazing :) Which is why from this morning’s post about ruts…no girl you’re never in one, ever! You’re always making something new!
I love that this uses ripe banana. I posted last week about a dozen or so of my recipes that start w/ ripe bananas. I dont like bananas plain, but IN recipes, espi in vegan baking, they are key to getting things to stick together sometimes.
I love the links to your older posts/recipes, too….makes me hungry!
These look great and I have made a vegan version of Heab’s Maple Nut Oaties that are similar to your recipe today. I laughed when you said yours were “delicate bites”…my recipe that im thinking of is VERY delicate too.
I have been thinking about you all day. Peace, hugs, blessings, and comfort my friend. oxoxo :)
This doesn’t have MUCH to do with cookies but OMG Angela you are on the HOME PAGE of Foodbuzz!! Congrats!
Healthy cookies are fab!! I make them for gifts for people – raw and cooked cookies.
I actually made some cookies with a seriously secret ingredient the other day. It’s pretty cool :) http://lifestyleraw.blogspot.com/2010/11/i-have-secret-to-share-with-you.html
Hope you can check them out! :)
I’m a total cookie monster, too! I love trying new recipes, as well, but my “go-to” healthy cookie recipe is for my Detox Raw Macaroons! (recipe here: http://bit.ly/diih8m) They are so easy to make, and are a HUGE HIT with even my non-health conscious friends and family!
I also tried a new-to-me recipe from 101 cookbooks tonight– Heidi’s Roasted Tomato Soup! It’s vegan, and turned out WONDERFULLY! It’s the first “successful” tomato soup I’ve made from scratch!
ohh I will have to try your macaroons!
Her tomato soup sounds fab too :)
I actually think that I’d make this and just eat the cookie batter raw with a bit of honey… ;)
Heh, I actually just read your post and when I noticed I had everything on the cookie ingredient list, I whiped them up in a second – they’re in my oven right now :) What else does one need, when there’s cookies in the world ? ;b
That’s fun!!
Oh, ha, these are the ones I emailed you about “pumpkinifying” last week or the week before. And I see you reduced the oil and coconut a bit too. Did you like them with the banana? I still want to make them work out the pumpkin way, but yours look like they held up better.
When I want to make a healthy cookie I always end up making thumbprints. Everyone I know has had them and often request them. But if I’m going for decadent I make lemon bars. In fact, a few friends who have been to my holiday party every year have started to call me Laura Lemon Bar. So I guess that’s the go-to dessert.
I love thumbprints too :)
I was gonig to add pumpkin to this recipe but I was scared as the ingredients weren’t holding together that well…also I think a bit of sweetener may need to be added if pumpkin was added too.
Oh yes, I added maple syrup, but it must have thrown the wet/dry ratio off. Maybe bananas aren’t as moist. Because they were great tasting, but turned really soft after about an hour. I think they need a flax egg and a little more flour of some sort, either the almond or the oat. I’m sure you’d do it better!!!
Do you ever use stevia as a natural sweetener? I use it all the time, especially in my green monsters! I love stevia, because it’s basically sugar without the calories!
Do you think switching out the banana for applesauce might work?
I just made some chocolate peanut butter bites that looked just like these. They were so good, I couldn’t stop!
I love making healthy cookies, so bring on the great recipes.
Those look great – I usually make something new every time. Usually something you’ve made!!!
Those are totally adorable. :D
I like trying new recipes; that’s more fun!
That is so crazy! Two days ago I was looking all over for a recipe for a cookie that would be safe and I couldn’t find one so I made up my own (I cannot bake AT ALL so I just winged it -improper english(?)-) and this recipe looks A LOT like mine! I couldn’t find a recipe with just oats anywhere. The cookies are so good though, not too sweet but just sweet enough!
Did you have any other ingredients that were different? Im curious as to what else would work in this type of cookie (making sure it held together enough is my main concern!)
I just did oats (around 2c I think), walnuts, pumpkin seeds, chopped almonds, (a lot of nuts) and then melted 3 bananas in the micrawave, combined the bananas with 2 applesauce cups and let it cool a little and then mixed everything together. I put in about 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips and then baked them at 350 until they felt firm but not dried out (about 20 minutes? they were about 2″ balls). They were sooooo good. Very basic which is good for my cooking skills.
I love wholesome cookies. I made the raw cookies a few weeks ago and again last night. They make a great pre workout snack! But usually, (for the sake of blog content) I try to make a new recipe every time.
I love the little nut butter hats! So precious;)
I love healthy alternative to sweet treats. These look great and I love the nut butter topping!