I swim with friends a couple of times a week & we have a ritual of having a coffee after & sometimes a cookie like these ones. They are so incredibly good, we spent months trying to work out what was in them, I found a few recipes online which I think are pretty close to the cookies we enjoy, after a few tweaks & a few tries I think I'm pretty close. You can find the original recipe that I modified here.
These cookies are vegan, gluten free & refined sugar free; they are easy to make, good for an easy breakfast or snack any time of day. They contain good fats, protein, fibre, slow releasing carbohydrates, iron, calcium and magnesium.
This recipe uses apple butter which is easy to make its just apples, water, lemon peel cinnamon and sugar. Its very similar to apple sauce but it has a richer, more caramel like flavour & takes a little longer to make. You can use apple sauce instead which you can buy or make, but if you have time to make the apple butter its worth it. I haven’t listed the recipe for apple butter or apple sauce here but there are plenty of recipes on the internet & apples are cheap at the moment, I get the cheaper organic juicing apples to make either apple sauce or apple butter.
Ingredients
· 170g whole rolled oats
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
· 250g almond butter, you can use hemp, pumpkin or sunflower seed butter to make them nut free
· 100g raw honey or maple syrup to make them vegan.
· 60g apple butter or apple sauce
· 115g mashed banana (1-2 bananas depending on size)
· 100g dried cranberries
· 70g pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
· 75g raisins
Extra cranberries & pepitas to top (optional)
Method
Preheat oven to (170 °C). Line 2 large baking sheets with unbleached baking paper or silicone baking mats.
In a blender mix the apple butter & banana until combined. You can just mix ingredients well by hand, but I prefer to have no banana or apple pieces in these cookies at all.
Combine all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl of a cake mixer. Beat the
ingredients until it is all combined & the dough is thick and heavy.
Using 2 dessert spoons, spoon heaped spoonful of cookie dough onto the prepared baking trays to make 12 cookies. Use a butter knife to flatten out into a cookie shape. The cookies will not spread in the oven so shape them into the size you want. Top with extra cranberries & pepitas if you like. This will give the cookies a bit more colour.
Bake for 17–20 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool cookies on the baking trays for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in a airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. You can try freezing them too, however, I haven't given this a try yet.
