While I am writing this post, I am sitting in bed and nibbling the last of these delicious cookies. I’m unsure if I should savor the last few bites and enjoy their deliciousness or cry over their imminent absence. These cookies are so good, and they’re also healthy.
This recipe is based on a banana cookie I made before. This time, I also added some pumpkin puree because I had a surplus of it in the fall.
Almond meal, which I used to replace most of the flour in the two dozen batches (only 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour), made them nearly gluten-free and vegan. Pecans, dried cranberries, and dark chocolate chips are also included. This is why I can call them breakfast, without a doubt. They’re so good that I could eat them all day long (and I do).
The cookies are delicious and irresistible, but unlike other desserts, they don’t make you feel heavy and miserable afterwards. These cookies are moist, slightly dense, and packed with protein from almond meal and butter, as well as pecans. They’re also sweetened by agave nectar, dark chocolate chips, and almond butter. It’s impossible to eat just one. You have to have at least two. You can trust me. It didn’t work out.
You can bake these, eat them as snacks, share them, or keep all of them for yourself. They’re just too good to pass up.
Ingredients
- Two medium-ripe bananas
- Pumpkin puree, 1/3 cup
- Almond butter, 1/2 cup
- Canola or refined coconut oil, 2 Tbsp.
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsp agave nectar
- Roll oats, 1 1/2 cups
- If you have it, 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
- Almond meal 1/2 cup
- Baking powder, 1/2 tsp
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- Add salt to taste (up to 1/2 teaspoon)
- 3 Tbsp. lightly crushed pecans
- 2 Tbsp dried Cranberries (more, if you like)
- Half a cup of semisweet or dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large mixing bowl, mash bananas, then add the almond butter, pumpkin purée, baking powder, baking soda, oil agave nectar, salt, and vanilla.
- Mix well oats with almond meal, flour, and oats.
- Stir in chocolate chips, cranberries, and pecans, if desired.
- Drop the cookies on a baking tray with spoonfuls and flatten them with a little pressure. They should be as uniform as possible in size (use generously rounded tablespoons).
- Bake the cookies for 15-17 minutes or until they are golden brown.
- Rest the cookies on the baking sheet for several minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. Keep in an airtight container for up to five days.