HEALTHY AS COOKIES CAN GET

Another recipe inspired from 101 Cookbook’s amazing cook and photographer Heidi Swanson. These cookies, with a foundation of banana instead of flour or eggs, are delectable. The recipe calls for 2 cups oats, however there is no such thing as gluten-free oats in this far-reaching world (trust me I have looked). You can use quinoa flakes or buckwheat flakes instead, however I decided to wing it and make the banana and almond meal the base ingredients. This worked quite well, the only difference being that the consistency of the cookies. A lovely gluten-free, dairy-free and healthy cookie recipe with natural ingredients and no sugary preservatives.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 small ripe bananas, mashed well (the riper the better as they will be sweeter tasting)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup finely shredded and unsweetened coconut 
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• 2/3 cup almond meal
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/8 cup coconut oil (measured in its liquid form, not solid)

COOKING 

1. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a large baking tray with baking paper. 

2. In a large combine the mashed bananas, honey, vanilla essence and coconut oil. Mix well. In a medium bowl combine the dry ingredients; the cinnamon, coconut, baking powder and almond meal. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir well, until combined. Gently fold in the chocolate chips. The dough will be more of a liquid consistency than cookie dough, don't stress! 

3. These cookies can be made as big or as small as you like. The mixture made 12 cookies for me, as each dollop of cookie mixture was about 1 1/2 tablespoons in size. Drop the dollops of dough onto the baking tray, centimetres apart. You can also make small cookies, by making the dough 2 teaspoons in size. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until chocolate is melted but the cookies are not burnt. Remove from the oven and let stand and cool for 10 minutes. 

Serves / 4

Total Preparation time / 20 minutes 

Total Cooking time / 15 minutes 

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