Like the tile says, this is a super simple and very quick recipe for some incredibly delicious cookies made with only a few ingredients. This cookie recipe bases on this 2-ingredient Oat banana cookie recipe and it's of course plant-based (vegan), gluten-free and refined sugar free. It takes only about 5 minutes to prepare and it's definitely one of my go-to cookie recipes.
Of course, I would be lying if I said that I follow it exactly to a T every time. No, just like with almost everything I make, I usually base on the core of the recipe and then I just improvise, depending on what I feel like at that time, what ingredients I have on hand and so on. In this case I'd stick to the 2-ingredient base (like in this 2-ingredient banana-oat cookie recipe) and I'd make sure I use a ripe banana as well as the adequate amount of oats (but even here I sometimes substitute them for a mix of oats, oat flour and almond meal). When it comes to the binder, here I use some brown flax seeds, but chia seeds or golden flax seeds will work just as well. In terms of the fat, I always prefer to use whole-food fat sources, here I suggest some nut butter (could be peanut, could be almond, hazelnut or cashew butter- each of them gives you a different taste in the end, but all of them are, at least in my opinion delicious). Just make sure whatever you use that it's a 100% nut butter and there is no added oils, sugar/sweeteners or salt. The go-to for most is peanut butter or almond butter, so I suggest that, but making it with hazelnut butter will definitely go well with the chocolate chips and make it taste a bit more like it was made with some Nutella or Ferrero Rocher bits:). You can also use seed butters (like sunflower seed butter or tahini) in place of the nut butters, if that's your preference. This recipe isn't using that much fat, so it's totally okay to substitute the nut/seed butters with some oil, I suggest extra virgin coconut (so cold-pressed unrefined), but surely other vegetable oils would work okay too.
In terms of the chocolate chips, it's great if you can use the dark dairy-free chocolate chips. This adds a little amount of added sugar to the recipe, but honestly, compared to the tone of sugar that the store-bought cookies contain, I wouldn't worry too much about that. You can also crush some dark dairy-free chocolate, if you can't find the chips. Alternatively, you can skip the chocolate chips completely and use raisins instead. This little ingredient swap changes the cookie quite drastically, but it doesn't make it any better or worse, in my opinion, it's just a different cookie, so it's up to you what you use. You can even go wild and use a mix of both raisins and chocolate chips! If, for whatever reason, you decide to omit them both, I would make sure you're using a very ripe banana and in case it doesn't turn out as sweet I would suggest adding a little bit of your sweetener of choice.. perhaps a tsp of maple syrup?
If you're not new to plant-based baking I just wanted to bring your attention to the fact that this recipe doesn't call for a flax egg (like most vegan baking recipes do) but only some ground flax seeds. It's because we don't want to add any more water into the dough as the moisture from the banana should be absolutely enough given the suggested ingredient ratios.
Simple, Quick and Delicious Banana Oat Chocolate Chip/Raisin Cookies
yields: about 12 cookies
prep time: about 5 minutes + about 25 min in the oven
Ingredients
1 ripe banana- about 120g (when peeled)
1,5 cups of rolled oats (I use gluten-free old-fashioned/rolled oats)
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp ground flax seeds (brown or golden, or you can substitute ground chia seeds)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp 100% almond butter (or sub for other 100% nut or seed butters or unrefined coconut oil)
1/2 tsp baking powder (use gf if necessary)
1/4 cup of dark dairy-free chocolate chips (or you can use raisins instead, if you like)
Method:
1- Preheat your oven to 185C/365F.
2- Add the oats as well as all the other dry ingredients you're using (gf baking powder, salt, ground flax seeds, cinnamon, chocolate chips/raisins) into a mixing bowl and mix everything well.
3- Peel the banana and place it in a separate bowl. Mash it with a fork or potato masher. Now add in the nut/seed butter or coconut oil and mix well.
4- Place both the dry and the wet mixtures in one bowl.
5- Combine everything using a fork, a spoon or your hands. If you use your hand you might end up crushing some of the oats in the process and creating a more uniform cookie dough, if you use a fork your oats should retain their shape and therefore remain visible in each cookie. Neither one is a better way, it just depends on your personal preference. The more uniform cookie will be softer and the ones with oats sticking out has a bigger crunch potential.
6- Prepare a baking tray and a sheet of parchment paper.
7- Once your dough is ready, roll about 1-2 tbsp of it at a time into balls, or you can use an ice-cream scoop and scoop out the dough balls. Place the balls on your baking tray covered with the baking paper. Space them evenly.
8- Take a fork, spoon or your hand against a piece of parchment paper and press each of the balls down to flatten the cookie to about 1 cm or 1/3 of an inch thick cookies.
9- Bake in preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes. You should take them out just as they start to brown on the edges a little bit, but you don't want to let them burn. The cookies will still seem a bit too soft, that's okay.
10- Let the cookies cool down on your baking tray or a cooling rack for at least 10-15 minutes.
You can store these cookies in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3 days, in the fridge for about a week, but you can also freeze them once they cool down and take them out one by one whenever you need something sweet.
Too complicated? Try this:
