Healthy Banana and Oat Cookies

I love cookies. Who doesn't? I'm trying to cut down on processed foods though, as I'm getting more and more conscious about what I eat. These cookies are super simple. I've played around with different variations on the recipe too. The first ones I made were these cranberry ones. Simply oats, banana and cranberries. Easy huh? I was going to add some orange zest but didn't have any oranges and a walk to the shop in the rain didn't sound too appealing. The second ones I made are chocolate ones. Healthy chocolate cookies! I use raw cacao in my baking instead of cocoa powder. It gives a really rich chocolatey flavour and you don't need to use much at all. It's a bit pricey but I buy in bulk and using it means I can eat more chocolatey bakes without the guilt. It's high in antioxidants and is good for your heart and stuff (I googled it once and was sold but if you want a proper list of why it's good, go ahead and have a look online). 

Ingredients

2 bananas

200g oats

25g cranberries

Zest of 1 orange

Method

1. Peel the bananas and mash them in a bowl.

2. Stir in the oats, cranberries and zest.

3. Roll into 20 small balls and flatten onto baking trays into cookies

4. Bake at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes until they're golden and firm to the touch.

5. Cool on a wire rack and eat!

                                      

Variations

Chocolate and Date Cookies

- Add 25g raw cacao and 25g chopped dates to the mixture.

Chocolate Orange Cookies

- Add 25g raw cacao and the zest of an orange to the mixture.

White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies

- Add 25g white chocolate chips and 25g cranberries to the mixture.

Tips

You can basically add anything you want to these cookies. With my recipes they work out at around 50-55 calories each. Obviously adding chunks of chocolate will increase that but they're still better for you than normal cookies and are low in saturated fat and sugar. I don't feel guilty polishing half a batch of these in one go! They're fab for breakfast on the go or snacks during the day. I even took a load to the cinema with me to avoid the temptation of popcorn and pick and mix! 

Giant Yorkie Bar Soft-Baked Cookies

Okay, so when you think cookies, Yorkie bars aren't the first thing to immediately spring to mind. However, my little brother tried them once and is now obsessed. After trawling through lots of recipes and a fair bit of tweaking, I've now got what I consider to be the perfect cookie. Soft baked cookies have always been a hit with my family, and featured heavily in our holidays to America. The Brits just don't make cookies like Americans do! However, I'm confident that this recipe will enable everyone to get their mitts on tasty, soft and gorgeously chewy cookies anywhere in the world! From this recipe I get about 8-10 large cookies.

 

 

You'll need:

2 baking sheets lined with greaseproof paper (ideally silicone paper but don't worry if you don't have it)

 

Ingredients:

250g plain, all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of sofa

1/2 tsp salt

150g unsalted butter, melted

200g soft light brown muscavado sugar

100g caster sugar

2 tsps vanilla extract (NOT essence)

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 Yorkie bars (or 250g chocolate chips if making chocolate chip cookies)

 

1. Chop up your Yorkie bars into small chunks (each block into about 6 or 8 little cubes works well).
2. Cream the sugars and butter together in a bowl then add the eggs and vanilla. Beat well until the mixture is light and really creamy.
3. Add the flour, bicarb, salt and chocolate to the sugary butter mixture. Mix until combined but be careful not to over-mix!
4. Using an ice cream scoop, put blobs of the cookie dough (its quite a soft mixture so don't be alarmed if you're used to really firm doughs!) onto the sheets of baking paper. Make sure you space them really far apart as the cookies will spread out a LOT! Don't flatten the balls of dough at all as they will spread out themselves. I usually get about three big balls of dough onto each baking sheet - don't worry if you have to do a few batches!
5. Bake the cookies for around 10-12 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius. If you want really soft cookies, go for a minimal amount of time, possibly even as little as 8 minutes. You want the edges to be slightly golden but the cookies will still be very soft - they harden as they cool. I leave mine in for about 10 minutes and they're the perfect ratio of crunchy round the edge and gooey and heavenly soft in the middle.
6. Leave the cookies to cool mostly on their trays before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

 

Obviously, if you want to eat them hot out of the oven, feel free! I know how great the temptation is once you smell them baking! They'd be really good drizzled with a chocolate or butterscotch sauce with oodles of vanilla ice cream as a really simple dessert at a dinner party or something. They're super simple but really impressive and tasty.

 

Tips

Don't be tempted to wait until they're firm to the touch in the oven as you'll get a really crunchy cookie once it's cooled

Wait til they're firm and mostly cool before trying to move them or they'll snap and broken cookies are sad cookies

Try them with lots of other chocolate bars! Cookies are so versatile and this recipe is a really good base. I LOVE white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies. You can always throw in a few cranberries too if you want to add something 'healthy' to justify eating more than one, but let's face it, once you try them you won't need any justification at all to go back for seconds!

Invite some friends around so that they arrive when the cookies are just in the oven, the house will smell amazing and they'll think you're an absolute genius!!

Be happy - happy bakers make happy cookies!

 

I seriously hope you try out this recipe. It's so simple! You'll never want store-bought again!!