I suppose that the title of this post is a little misleading. I mean, let’s be real. The perfect cookie is gooey and wonderfully sweet to the point where your tastebuds sing with pleasure. A cookie, by tradition, is loaded with lots and lots of delicious sugars and fats. However, my quest was not to find the perfect cookie, but to find a reliable proxy for those times when my sweet tooth is in the mood for…something…
I am happy to report that I had some success! Through trial and error I found various kinds of fruit that can be used in place of sugar and butter to create a cookie that is perfect to go with that after dinner glass of wine or in the morning with that first cup of coffee.
The first fruit base I came upon was bananas. I started with a very easy recipe like the one I found on a website called cleananddelicious.com which used just bananas, rolled oats, and chocolate chips to make a breakfast cookie.
I wanted to see if I could use something besides bananas and so I tried some unsweetened applesauce and canned pumpkin. I am happy to report that they all created about the same texture cookie, but there were definitely differences in the flavors.
The second part of my investigation was playing around with different mix-ins. Trying to keep with my goal of low sugar and gluten free, I stuck with the rolled oats as the primary grain to bulk up the cookies, and from there, I tried various ingredients such as raisins, dark chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and walnuts to create different textures and flavors.
I recruited some friends and family to do a taste test and it was a toss-up for the favorite between the applesauce and banana bases. They liked the pumpkin, but while apples and bananas have their own sweetness, the pumpkin is more savory so it made sense that it came in third. One friend is an avid outdoorsman and expressed that these cookies would make great energy bars to take hiking.
Here is a recipe for each that I found worked for me, but keep in mind that your choices of both base and mix-in ingredients are limited only by your imagination, individual tastes, and what you might have stashed in your kitchen cupboards. Each recipe makes 4-8 cookies depending on how big you make the cookies, and the recipe can be easily doubled if so desired.
Have fun with the ingredients and I hope you enjoy creating!
Banana bread cookie
1 banana – freeze, and thaw (for maximum flavor, the riper the banana, the better). Freezing will render it soft and easy to work with
½ cup rolled oats (I use old fashioned oats, but you can also use quick oats for a slightly different texture)
2 TBSP dark chocolate chips – minis work well
1 TBSP raisins
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
If the banana remains solid after freezing and thawing, use a potato masher to break it apart. Mix the ingredients together well. Spoon onto a baking sheet and press into cookie shape (*One thing to keep in mind is that these cookies do not spread out during baking so you will need to help them along). Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-22 minutes.
Hearty applesauce breakfast cookie
½ cup unsweetened applesauce (If you have apples around, you can make a quick applesauce simply by coring, peeling, and slicing the apples, then cooking on low heat in a covered saucepan and a little water until soft and mushy, about 30 minutes)
½ cup rolled oats or gluten free oat-based muesli
Dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla
1 TBSP raisins
1 TBSP dried cranberries
2 TBSP dark chocolate chips.
Mix the ingredients together well. Spoon onto a baking sheet and press into cookie shape. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-22 minutes.
Pumpkin apple energy cookie
½ cup canned/pureed pumpkin
¼ cup applesauce (this adds a little sweetness while still allowing the flavor of the pumpkin to come through)
½ cup rolled oats
1 tsp cinnamon
2 TBSP crumbled walnuts
2 TBSP dark chocolate chips
1 TBSP raisins
*Sunflower or pumpkin seeds would also work well in this recipe. You could also try adding some pumpkin pie spice.
Mix the ingredients together well. Spoon onto a baking sheet and press into cookie shape. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-22 minutes.
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