Nikki’s healthy cookies, revisited

One of my first posts was my adapted version of Nikki’s Healthy Cookies from 101 Cookbooks, a “classic” healthy cookie of the blog world. Butter-less, flour-less, egg-less, and sugar-less, these continue to please as my go-to healthy cookie and friends still ask me for “that banana cookie recipe you always made.”

Well with time after time of baking these and my unending obsession with changing up recipes, I have for you my new and improved healthy banana cookie. It’s peanutty, banana-y, coconutty, puctuated with drops of creamy chocolate (or carob), and to me the flavors never get old. Substantial + healthy enough to eat for breakfast, ideal for a midday snack, and decadent enough to satisfy my sweet cravings…. what more do I need to say? :)

Get baking and have yourself some guilt-free deliciousness!

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cookie dough bites of bliss

I try my hardest not to buy processed snacks—both for the processed factor as well as the ingredient factor—because even “health food” companies and organic snacks from Whole Foods use lots of added sweeteners, fats, and refined flours. But I simply don’t have the time to bake fresh granola bars and healthy muffins every time I reach for a snack.

My lack of time for baking has led me to experiment with a quick-to-make, easy-to-eat, and sweet-tooth-satisfying treat. After a few attempts (eh ok.. maybe like 6 in the last two weeks ;) I’m proud to give you my new favorite go-to treat: bliss balls.

I can put them together in 5 minutes tops (and I’m especially slow in the kitchen so this is incredible for me), they don’t get dried out or stale since they live in the freezer, and they leave you with one (just one!) dirty bowl. But best of all… the dense, peanut buttery flavor interspersed with bittersweet chocolate bits is exactly what my sweet tooth craves. Plus I’ve always been a dough girl… who needs the oven when you can eat spoonfuls of the gooey dough?! (egg-free, Mom!)

Oh, and I almost forgot – not only is this a guiltless recipe, it’s a very nutritious one. Whole grains, a good boost of protein and fiber from the peanut flour, antioxidants from cocoa, just a bit of healthy fat, a touch of fruit, and no refined sugar to be found.

…Bliss in a ball :)

Freezer bliss balls, inspired by these

• ¼ cup peanut flour
• ¼ cup whole wheat flour (gluten free options: use oat flour, coconut flour or almond meal)
• 2 T erythritol, or other granulated sweetener of the unrefined variety (depending on your tastes you may want to add more – I don’t like mine too sweet)
• dash n’ a half of salt
• 1 T smart/earth balance, softened (or coconut oil)
• 1 T unsweetened applesauce
• ¼ t vanilla extract
• ¼ t maple extract
• 1-2 T vanilla soy milk
• 1 t honey (optional – I added this at the end for a bit more sweetness and to help bind the dough)
• ¼–1/3 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips (or try mini choc chips, chopped chocolate, cocoa nibs, carob chips..)

Whisk together flours, sweetener and salt. Add butter, applesauce + extracts and combine with spatula to form thick dough. Gradually add milk til you have the right consistency. Batter should be thick and hold up well. If you add too much milk, add an extra spoonful of peanut flour. Mix in chocolate chips.

Spoon into balls/blobs, flatten, sprinkle with sea salt, & freeze for on-the-go-goodness. They’ll thaw in about 60 seconds into a sweet dough ball of bliss.

Makes 12 small cookies. (Since I made these several times to perfect them, I kept the batches small. Feel free to double or triple the recipe :)

*Update Sept 2013: I now usually triple this recipe (so that they last me more than 2 days!). I use 1 cup peanut flour and 1/2 cup coconut flour (omitting the wheat flour altogether) and about 2 T coconut sugar along with enough stevia to make it sweet. Coconut flour is very absorbent so if you use it, you may have to add another Tbsp or two of applesauce. 

Cookies of the earth

Dates + apples + peanuts + almonds + cacao + oats + rice + coconut.

Talk about an impressive list of ingredients for a cookie!

I intended to title these “no-bake choco peanut puddles,” but while scanning my list of ingredients I realized something—how close to nature these cookies really are :] Fruits, nuts, grains, legumes… but not processed, refined, enriched, fortified or sweetened like everything in our grocery stores seems to be.

So you can truly feel good about eating these cookies—they’re full of natural and whole foods, which are naturally better for your health!

Besides all that wholesome nutrition, these guys are good. In every single way. They’re rich with a chocolatey peanut butter flavor, they stay soft straight from the freezer and thaw extremely fast. Know what that means?! Yep. Ice cream sandwich perfection. A little spoonful of vanilla bean cream in between two of these guys and you’ve got yourself one divine, richly satisfying dessert. Let it thaw a minute and the cookie and cream meld seamlessly into one another.

Vegans rejoice. Make them gluten free if you wish by using gluten free oats. And even the biggest sweet teeth on the planet [me] can indulge completely guilt-free. No refined sugar, no artificial sugar. Just fruits of the earth. And love.

No-bake choco peanut puddles, adapted from here

½ c pitted Medjool dates, firmly packed (about 6-7)

½ c hot water

1 T coconut oil

2 T unsweetened applesauce

1/3 c natural peanut or almond butter

2 t vanilla

¼ c + 1 T raw cacao powder

¼ t sea salt

¼ c almond meal

¼ c peanut flour

1 c oats (processed in a blender a bit)

½ c puffed rice cereal (processed in a blender a bit)

**edited 8/29/12: I took out 1/4cup earth balance / applesauce from my original recipe and added 1/4 cup more oats. This makes the dough less runny and easier to work with. You could even get away with adding more oats/puffed rice if you’d like a stiffer dough.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place the pitted dates in a blender or food processor. Add hot water, coconut oil and applesauce and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes. Blend or process the mixture until it is nice and creamy. You may have to push or stir the mixture down a couple of times, but make sure the dates are as broken down as possible.

Transfer the date mixture to a medium sized bowl. Use a small spatula to scoop out the mixture, as you’ll want to make sure you get every bit of it. Add the nut butter and vanilla; stir until well blended. Stir in the cacao powder, salt, almond meal and peanut flour. Add the processed oats and puffed rice and stir until well blended. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet and freeze 30 minutes or until set.

Since the dough is rather loose and gooey, I recommend keeping the cookies in the freezer until you eat them–they’ll thaw in about 60 seconds!

I you want to make ice cream sandwiches: Roll the dough out to ¼ inch thickness between parchment paper and plastic wrap. Cut into circles (I used a jar), freeze on parchment paper, assemble sandwiches and freeze in tupperware or plastic wrap til you’re ready for one yummy treat. *Note: the dough thaws quickly, so when cutting out and assembling sandwiches work fast!

Peanut flour + whole wheat pancakes

I’m big on breakfast. This is only as of a year ago, when I was on Semester At Sea and if I didn’t get up and eat by 830, I was stuck in cranky hunger mode until noon. But before that I avoided breakfast, at most eating an apple or peach because I was never that hungry anyway.

After getting in the habit of breakfast, I can’t go without it. I never realized the energy I was missing out on to jump start my day, and that it left me choosing a more reasonable-sized lunch. My favorite thing about breakfast, though, is that you can choose to eat sweet or savory (or both!) depending on your mood. When else do you have that choice for a meal? I certainly don’t look too normal having blueberry scones for dinner, no matter how “healthified” they may be.

I try to make time to sit and enjoy my breakfast with a cup of coffee or tea. It always makes for a happy start to my day. My all-time favorite on-the-go breakfast is a brown rice cake [plain, salted or lightly sweetened] topped with honey-almond butter or Better n’ Peanut Butter, a layer or sliced banana and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon. It wins every time. Quick and simple to make, easy to eat while walking, a bit salty, a bit sweet, and perfectly satisfying.

Oatmeal follows close behind as my favorite [especially during the winter months] because of the endless flavor combinations and add-ins, but more on that in a later post.

When I have a bit more time for breakfast-creating, pancakes are a popular choice. My recent discovery and obsession with peanut flour led me to try these peanut flour + whole wheat pancakes.

A little on peanut flour: it’s made from ground peanuts that have a good amount of the fat removed. It’s gluten-free, protein-packed, and has a mild peanuty flavor. If you want to make a lower fat peanut butter out of it, combine 2 T flour with 1 T water or milk [I like vanilla soy] and a little salt and honey to bring out the flavor.

All I have to say about these hot cakes is this: they smell and taste like freshly baked peanut butter cookies, and are healthier than I ever though possible for pancakes.