I’m sure there are healthy and tasty cookie recipes out there somewhere. But Fix Me A Snack has come to an exectutive decision that there will be no more cookies here.
Every six months or so I decide I need to make a cookie that is yummy and has some redeeming nutritional qualities. And every time the process is fraught with disappointment. Sometimes I just need a sugar hit. Biting into something that looks like a cookie, but does not deliver the goods is cruel. I will no longer do this to myself or my children.
Here’s a picture of the results of the latest round of experiments: Oatmeal Raisin Flax Cookies.
Looks yummy, doesn’t it? Don’t be fooled. Save yourself for the real thing. And by real I mean loaded with sugar and butter.
These taste more like pie crust than store-bought graham crackers (and given the amount of butter in them, I’m not a bit surprised). This is adapted from the Graham Crackers recipe in Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook 
. I’ve looked around for alternatives to try, some of which look amazingly delicious. But Martha’s recipe has less sugar (which I’ve reduced further) and did well with a couple adjustments I made to cut back on time and effort expended.
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I need to make these again sometime soon because I might have eaten most of them myself and my kids might not have really gotten a chance to taste them. Poor little souls.
The key with these, unless you enjoy running the oven all day, is to create a uniform and consistant thickness as best you can. One little fat blob of apple can take up to an extra hour to dry out. Either that or you’ll be forced to eat it immediately because it won’t keep well if it’s not totally dried out.
4 apples, coarsely grated (approximately 1 1/2 cup lightly packed)
2 tablespoons brown sugar (optional, especially if you have some sweet apples to work with)
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch salt
Preheat oven to 250 F.
In a medium bowl mix together the apple, brown sugar, wheat germ, butter, cinnamon, and salt. Place heaping tablespoon-sized scoops of the apple mixture onto parchment lined baking sheets. Make sure the scoops are 2- inches apart. With the back of a spoon, flatten the scoops until they are 1/4-inch (or less) thick. Pay careful attention to achieving a uniform thickness as the cookies will require more time in the oven if they are too thick.
Bake for 1 1/2 – 2 hours or until the cookies are dry yet pliable. Allow to cool before serving. Once cool, the cookies should crisp up considerably. Store in an airtight container.
Makes 20 cookies
Prep time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 1 1/2 hours
Note: These “cookies” will cook differently depending how thinly they are spread out on the baking sheets. So after an hour and a half, check in on them every ten minutes or so. They may brown a bit and that’s fine. They dry quite a bit after they cool down so if they’ve been in the oven for two hours and no longer feel squishy, they are most likely done.
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Cookies are a personal battle when it comes to making “healthy” snacks. When I first started investigating and experimenting, I tasted a lot of low-fat, low-sugar baked goods that were cookies in name but definitely not in spirit. Therefore, my official policy is that cookies should not be tinkered with and be allowed to do what they do best: deliver a luscious combination of fat and sugar.
I am nonetheless tempted to experiment from time to time. And simply because I’ve never eaten an avocado cookie before and avocados are so high in good-for-you fat, I’ve come up with this “healthier” cookie that I feel a little bit better about putting in my kid’s lunch box. Its taste is no where near a Toll House. But I feel like they are probably as close as I am going to get to a “healthy” cookie that my family still enjoys eating.
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ripe haas avocado, pitted and skin removed
½ cup butter (1 stick), softened
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 large egg
½ cup low-fat milk
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, oats, coconut, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Mash avocado with a fork in a large bowl until there are no large chunks remaining. Add butter and mix very well with avocado. Add sugars and stir well. Add egg and stir. Finally add the milk and stir until incorporated. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined. Fold in chocolate chips (if desired).
Drop heaping tablespoons full of batter onto ungreased baking sheets or jelly roll pans two inches apart. Bake for 15-17 minutes near the center of the oven, rotating once if necessary. Once the edges of the cookies start to brown, remove from oven and transfer to cooling rack with spatula. Allow to cool slightly and serve.
These cookies will soften considerably if left out overnight. They are best stored in the freezer in an airtight container and thawed on demand.
Makes 38 cookies.
Prep time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
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Walnuts + Brown Sugar + Butter = Love
1 cup unsalted walnut pieces
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Place walnuts, oats, flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processer. Run the processer for 15-20 seconds. Chop the cold butter into large pieces, add to the walnut mixture, and process 10 seconds more.
Remove the blade from the processer bowl. Squeeze the walnut mixture into 1 1/2-inch balls with your hands. Press the balls 1/4 to 1/8-inch flat on an ungreased cookie sheet. Space the flattened balls about 2-inches apart. There will be some crumbs, but for the most part the mixture should stick together with some good squeezing and the heat from your hands.
Bake for 15 mintues or until the edges are golden. Allow to cool on baking sheet. Remove very gently with a spatula. Serve or store in an airtight container.
Makes 18 wafers.
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This is an extremely flexible snack recipe that is sweet and satisfying. Replacing the honey with apple butter brings the sugar content down to a buzz-free level. But I do love the sweet, moist goodness the honey imparts. These bars freeze very well (separate layers with wax paper) and keep for up to a couple months.
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup raisins or 1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey or apple butter
1 large egg, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 F
Mix oats, sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, salt and raisins in medium bowl. Make a well in the center and add remaining ingredients. Mix well.Transfer to greased 9 x 13 pan and flatten mixture into pan with your hands.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until edges are brown. The majority of the pan may look under done. As long as the edges are brown, it’s okay. Don’t over bake or it will be dry.
Allow to cool slightly in pan. Cut into squares and serve or store in airtight container.
Yield: 24 bars (on the smallish side)
Prep-time: 10 minutes
Bake-time: 20 minutes
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This cookie recipe comes close to not being allowed on this blog because calling a healthy snack is just wrong. A lot of the time when I take a normal cookie recipe and reduce the sugar and fat it feels so much healthier than what I could have made and through some magical transformation it becomes “healthy” or a “healthier version”. Anything to justify heath bar. Yum!
1 1/2 cup white whole wheat all purpose flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 ground flaxseed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 1.4 ounce Heath Bars, chopped into small bits
Preheat oven to 350 F.
In medium bowl, whisk together flours, flaxseed, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
In large bowl, cream butter with rubber spatula. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix until batter starts to stick together and form a ball. Add Heath Bar bits and mix into dough.
Scoop dough with a cookie scoop onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges just start to brown and the tops are set. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
Inspired heavily by a beautiful recipe from Simply Recipes:
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/005213heath_bar_cookies.php
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