Testing Vegan Cookie Recipes

I have a serious sweet tooth and one thing I can never get enough of is cookies. I’ve been trying to eat as healthy as possible so that meant cutting out the sweets.

So I decided to spend my day trying out a couple healthy cookie recipes. I found one from Tone It Up and another from Minimalist Baker. Both used healthy plant-based ingredients.

The Tone It Up cookie recipe came from their 7-day Slim Down plan. They only required four ingredients: bananas, a flax egg, vanilla protein powder, and coconut flakes. Sounded pretty healthy to me!

The only protein powder I had was chocolate flavored so they turned out more like chocolate coconut macaroons. I definitely think these would be better with the vanilla protein powder and shredded coconut would probably be better than coconut flakes. They flakes were too big and the shredded would give them a texture closer to macaroons. The other downfall of these cookies is that since they have bananas in them, they should be refrigerated and doing that made them slightly mushy. Overall though, for such a healthy cookie these weren’t too bad and satisfied the chocolte cravings for the night.

The second recipe I tried were the cookies from Minimalist Baker. She provides a basic recipe and the option of add mix-ins like mini chocolate chips or craisins which I decided to use.

The base for this recipe used dates, nut butter, oats, almond meal, and banana. Again, pretty simple, healthy ingredients. I opted to use PBfit in place of nut butter for a lower fat snack.

I split the dough in half and mixed mini chocolate chips in one half and craisins in the other.

It took me a while to place it, but they taste almost exactly like Lara bars. The second I recognized the flavor, it was a light bulb moment. If I just took out the banana and replaces it with some more dates it would be basically the same. Add some peanut butter to the chocolate chip one and there you have peanut butter chocolate chip Lara bars. I will definitely be making that variation in the future. They are one of my favorite snacks.

Overall, Minimalist Baker definitely won this clean cookie competition and satisfied the chocolate chip cookie cravings. I will be trying many more healthy cookie recipes in the future. They were 100% worth the time!

TIU Cookies:

Ingredients:

2 bananas

1 flax egg

2 scoops protein powder

1 cup coconut flakes

Method:

1. Mash bananas in bowl.

2. Add flax egg and combine.

3. Mix in coconut flakes.

4. Add protein powder half a scoop at a time.

5. Scoop dough in balls about 1 inch in diameter and place on cookie sheet.

6. Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes.

Minimalist Baker Cookies:

Ingredients:

1 cup dates

1 banana

2 tbsp PBfit (mixed with water to make peanut butter)

3/4 cup almond butter

3/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1/4 cup craisins

Method:

1. Soak dates in warm water for about ten minutes to soften.

2. Pulse dates in food processor or blender until a paste is created with only small pieces.

3. Add PBfit and banana and pulse until combined.

4. Add oats and almond meal and pulse until combined.

5. Place dough in a large bowl.

6. Add almond meal one tablespoon at a time until the dough isn’t sticky.

7. Split dough in half. Add chocolate chips to one half and craisins to the other. (You can use whatever mix-ins you want these are just my personal recommendations, but trust me they are sooo good).

8. Place dough on cookie sheet one tablespoon at a time. Form each into round disks.

9. Bake at 350F for 15-20 min.