Healthy Cookies!

I love to bake and Hub is a cookie monster! What a couple! Hahaha! Since it is really unhealthy to consume too much simple carbohydrate, butter & refine sugar. Therefore, I have been trying out healthier baking alternatives. I have come up with this healthy cookies recipe (no flour, no butter & no refine sugar) both Hub & I enjoy a lot. Hence I thought I would share it with you here.

I was drawn to Chocolate-Covered Katie's Oatmeal Almond-Butter Cookies as it was simple and quite healthy except for one tiny thing - I don't like xylitol. Therefore, I substituted it with natural homemade date puree. Keeping in mind that date puree will change the consistency of the cookie dough as it has some water content unlike sugar, I began making the cookie dough without applesauce. However, I felt that the consistency of the dough was too dry, therefore I added a tablespoon of unsweetened applesauce. I guess you could use water too but I haven't tried it with water yet.

For me, cookie is not cookie without chocolate chips! Hahaha! I usually use Guittard 63% bittersweet chocolate chips (as seen in these photos). Yesterday, I baked another batch with Awfully Good To Go salted caramel dark chocolate, it tasted even better (noticed the past tense? All the cookies are gone now!) Bare in mind though, the higher the cocoa mass, the healthier the chocolate. You can google "health benefits of chocolate" if you are keen to learn more. By the way, commercial chocolate contains refine sugar except for 100% dark chocolate. And no one would enjoy eating that as it's bitter! I have tried cocoa nibs, it was okay. My personal preference is still 70% to 85% dark chocolate. When recipes call for melted chocolate, those would be what I go for. I have yet to come across chocolate chips that have higher chocolate mass than Guittard at my local stores and I am quite lazy to chop up chocolate. Therefore, till I find 70% or higher cocoa mass chocolate chips, I am happy to stick with Guittard.

As you can see, I have deviated quite a bit from Chocolate-Covered Katie's that my cookies no longer look anything like hers! And till now, I still have yet to bake her original recipe. Oops!

P/S: If you don't care for healthy cookies, and all you want is butter & sugar, click here for my all-time-favourite oatmeal chocolate-chips cookies recipe. I have gifted these cookies to many people and everyone loves them. One even told me that she hates oatmeal but she loves my oatmeal chocolate-chips cookies :)

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DATE-SWEETENED ALMOND OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIPS COOKIES

Make 15 cookies

125g raw almond butter (see note)
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp quick oats
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup date puree
1 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup dark bittersweet chocolate chips


1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2) In a medium mixing bowl, stir together all ingredients, except chocolate chips, to form a dough. Stir in chocolate chips.

3) Drop dough by a tablespoonful onto the prepared cookies tray, flatten a bit with a rubber spatula or spoon (these cookies don't spread but they puff up a bit after being baked).

4) Bake for 8 minutes. The cookies should still look a little undercooked when you remove them from the oven, but they’ll firm up as they cool. Sprinkle some sea salt on the cookies (highly recommended as it heightens the taste of chocolate). Set the tray aside for at least 10 minutes before picking up a cookie. Cool completely on a wire rack.


Note: I used store-bought raw almond butter that is made with 100% organic raw almond. You can make your own by processing raw almond in a food processor until it is creamy. This will only take 5 minutes.