Recipe (vegan, no refined sugar, low fat, can be made gluten-free).
When you just need a cookie, these are the favorite around our house. We don’t make them often, because we avoid sugar, flour and oil. But I adapted this recipe to reduce the amount of oil needed, and to replace the white sugar. This is taken from several cookie recipes in the book, “Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar” by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero.
Everything Cookies (adapted by Dawn):
1 very ripe banana, medium 1/6 cup coconut oil 1/6 cup applesauce, unsweetened 1/6 cup dark agave nectar (raw) 1/6 cup brown rice syrup 2 Tbsp xylitol natural sweetener powder (or Whole Earth sweetener) 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, or gluten-free all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 2 cups rolled oats (gluten-free oats if you prefer) 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 1/2 cup dried cranberries 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
2. In a mixing bowl, mash the banana well. You can use a fork or your hands. Add the oil, applesauce, agave, brown rice syrup, and xylitol and mix with a strong fork. Add the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Add the oatmeal, walnuts, cranberries and chocolate chips and mix well. It is actually good to use your hands for mixing when using oats, to make sure the oats get nice and moist. If the dough is very slippery, add a few extra tablespoons of flour – it really depends on how big your banana was.
3. Scoop the dough into scant 1/4 cup portions (a floured 1/4 cup measuring cup works well for this), and place on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. If they want to fall apart, just press them together with your hands.
4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly browned. Let them cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to wire rack.
(for an even lower-fat, lower-sugar cookie, skip the chocolate chips).
Enjoy!
Dawn Potter, AP, Dipl.OM