Description
Healthy chocolate oatmeal cookies are the perfect way to satisfy a sweet tooth. Soft, fudgy, chocolate cookies that are vegan, gluten free, naturally sweetened, and made using a few wholesome ingredients
Ingredients
- Scant 1 cup overly ripe bananas – measure after mashing (about 2 to 1/2 bananas)
- 1/4 cup natural nut butter, or seed butter (see notes)
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
- optional: 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 cup quick cooking oats
- 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats (see notes)
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I like using a mix of mini and regular, but either work)
- optional: flaky sea salt for finishing
Instructions
- Prepare: pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a baking sheet and set aside.
- Mash the bananas: Peel 2 of the very ripe bananas and add them to a large mixing bowl. Use a potato masher, or a fork to mash the banana until it’s semi-smooth, some lumps are okay. At this point measure your mashed bananas, you want scant 1 cup, or 1 cup of mashed banana. If your bananas were on the smaller side then add another 1/2 of a banana.
- Add the remaining wet ingredients: Stir in your nut, or seed butter, of choice, along with your maple syrup, salt, cinnamon and vanilla extract, until everything is well combined.
- Add the remaining ingredients: Stir in the quick cooking oats, rolled, oats, and chocolate chips, or until everything is well combined and a thick batter forms.
- Scoop the cookies: Measure out about 1.5 tablespoons of the batter into round cookies and place them on the baking sheet. I like to use a medium cookie scoop (1.5 tablespoons) to make easy, quick work. Use a spatula to press down on the cookies slightly – they don’t naturally spread out when cooking. Sprinkle each cookie with a little flaky sea salt, if desired.
- Bake: Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or just until the cookies look dried out on top.
- Cool & serve: Allow them to cool for 5 minutes. Once they have cooled enough to handle you can enjoy the cookies warm. They are SO GOOD when they are fresh from the oven!
- To store: Once the cookies have cooled completely transfer them to an air tight container and store them on the counter for up to 3 days, and in the fridge for up to 7 days. The cookies are also really good at room temp, or cold, but they are an extra treat when they are fresh from the oven. Since they are good leftover they are the perfect treat for packed lunches etc.
Notes
Nut butter: You can use any kind of natural nut butter, or seed butter you like. The only ingredients that should be in your nut butter are the nuts and maybe a pinch of salt, no extra oils necessary. I used tahini paste (sesame seed butter) in my cookies and love it. I think peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower butter would all be great options here.
Oats: I like using the combo of the quick cooking oats and the rolled oats. The quick cooking oats sort of “melt” into the cookie providing a nice soft texture. While the rolled oats provide bites of texture that are nice. You can use all of either kind of that’s all you have on hand. Just keep in mind that the texture may vary from what is pictured in my post.
Gluten free: To keep these cookies gluten free make sure to use certified gluten free oats.
Dairy free/vegan: to make these cookies dairy free/vegan make sure to use dairy free/vegan chocolate chips.
