I'm prefixing these with "Vegan" not because I'm marketing them as such but because it immediately warns you that they are untraditional. I have no issues with Vegan desserts. If anything, I find them fascinating because they push the envelope and prove you can make yummy healthy things without the traditional loads of butter, eggs and sugar that we are used to. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE me some traditional baked goods as well but on a day to day basis I like to experiment with ways to make cookies and desserts that are a little lighter and contain more ingredients that boost their nutritional profiles. Which isn't that hard to do especially when you have a kid that hears the word "cookie" and goes nuts. It warms my heart to know I'm feeding him pumpkin, oats and flax and he's LOVING every minute of it.
Oh and boy did he love it! He couldn't stop eating these straight out of the oven.. he munched and munched all morning and kept asking if he could have another. It was awesome! The flavor was awesome! the Texture? Well, not a traditional cookie per se, very soft/chewy and almost cake like but we both really like it. The husband said, and I quote, "Not bad but these aren't my thing." Which they aren't. I have only ever seen the man eat traditional chocolate chip cookies. That's it. No other cookies have passed his lips since I met him. I SWEAR! He is not HUMAN!
Anyway, I based the recipe on this one from Post Punk Kitchen but of course I changed it up. Reducing the sugar, kicking out the oil and upping the flax. Really, I should seek professional help as it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to follow a recipe as it. I just can't do it. Scratch that, I just don't want to. In a way it's not fun for me. It takes away everything I love about cooking. Is that weird?
Anyway, here's what I did...
- 2 cups of white whole wheat flour (240g)
- 1 ½ cups Rolled Oats (120g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- ¾ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½ cup organic or sugar in the raw (regular would work fine)
- ¾ cups applesauce (183g)
- 2 tbsp molasses
- 2 tbsp honey or agave
- 1 cup canned pumpkin (240g)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp whole flaxseeds (20g) ground
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Combine the dry ingredients; flour oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg. Mix well or let the kids mix well. 🙂
In a separate bowl combine the sugar, applesauce, molasses, honey, pumpkin, vanilla and ground flaxseeds. Mix well.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold in until well combined. The cookie batter will look like this...
Drop by the tablespoon on cookie sheets sprayed with non-stick spray. The cookies will not spread so flatten them out slightly with a fork. Bake for 16 minutes. remove and let cool (while taking pictures. 🙂
We ended up with 66 cookies. Now, I've been back and forth on a serving size to calculate the nutritional info but 3 cookies per serving works out perfectly but please note... 5 cookies is only 3 points (actually 2.8)! As a prior point counter I like the sounds of that. 🙂
Oh! and in case you are wondering what I did with the leftover pumpkin in the can, I combined it with a serving of my leftover overnight steel cut oats, mixed in a little sugar in the raw, some pumpkin pie spice and extra cinnamon..... oh.my.word! DELICIOUS! Really, even though it looks like a pile of mush...
| Servings | Amt per Serving | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 3 Cookies | |||
| Calories | Fat | Fiber | WWPs | |
| 99 | 1g | 2g | old: 2 | new: 3 |
| Sugar | Sat Fat | Carbs | Protein | |
| 9g | 0g | 22g | 3g | |
Thanks for this recipe, I will try it and OMIT the honey. Using honey will NOT make them VEGAN. Also, I will be using pumpkin puree not canned which if already premade with sugar may not be vegan as well. As regular sugar is put thru bone char.
Love your son's shirtless pics!! LOL I remember those days...
Dawn
My "cookie" recipes really aren't for everyone so it may not be anything you did wrong. I always try my best to warn people in the intro that they are non-traditional.
Sorry they didn't turn out for you!
I have tried several recipes off your site and they have all been really good, however this one was a total miss. NOT good at all. I don't know if I did something wrong or what the issue was (I'm a nazi about following directions, so I don't think I did). Maybe next time!
Yup! Just use 20g. It's why I give the weight for certain things. Hope you like them!
Roni- The measurement for the flax seeds is before you grind them, so I was wondering if I used the flax I have that is already ground would i go with the overall weight? This looks awesome. I'm trying to get away from the store bought breakfast bars and such and this looks like it'll work!
I'm going to a pumpkin party this weekend and have to feed a bunch of hungry, healthy conscious triathletes. I think this might be just the dish. Looking forward to giving it a shot, thanks Roni!
I made these last night. AMAZING. I added a handful of nuts, and craisins. thanks.
Looks good! I just made some Kombucha Cookies and thought of you and your little boy--think you'd like them!
http://jesscookinit.blogspot.com/2010/10/kombucha-cookies-and-butterfly-kisses.html
Love your site by the way...I could spend hours looking at all your recipes! 🙂
AWESOME! Glad you like them.. .yeah.. maybe we should call them pumpkin tea cakes or something?!? Either way.. they are tasty! Such a good way to get good stuff in the little ones. 🙂
I made these today, and lovvvve them! The 2 yr old definitely tried eating the batter, and also made a mess but it was lots of fun! The molasses and spices give them excellent flavor, while the 3 different types of sugar make it most definitely NOT need anything else sweet. They don't rise like cookies, but rather taste like a cake or bread. They are very yummy!
Yum!!!!!! I can't wait to make these! Anything with pumpkin and I am sold!!!!!
Meredith - I have seen it at all my local grocery stores. Normally the king author brand... It look like this...
King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour, 5 lb
These look great! I am going to make them Sat. to take to a family get together!
eek! 66 cookies?!?!? These are definitely fit for the freezer or they will never make it 😉
These look so yummy! Where do you find whole wheat white flour? I looked at Wal-Mart and Whole Foods this weekend and couldn't find it at either place.
I was thinking the same thing.. about the applesauce but since the original recipe called for oil I thought, why not? 🙂
I stocked up on pumpkin last grocery trip.. loving having it in the pantry!
I'm a fan of hiding protein powder in sweet baked dishes. Also, with pumpkin you probably don't also need applesauce - either one works as a fat replacement for baking. I'm also a fan of adding cocoa powder to anything like this. I really need to keep a cache of canned pumpkin - haven't seen it on the october sales yet.
I'm impressed - these actually look really good! Now all you have to do is make them gluten free 🙂
ohhh Did NOT know that!! Agave would be fine.. I only did it to add a touch more sweetness since I cut the sugar almost down to nothing.
LOVE how many cookies this makes! They look fantastic and I need to make them soon.
But, (and you may already know this) most vegans don't eat honey. I do because there are beehives on my parent's land and they are happy bees that make wonderful honey
Qiting - In this recipe I used applesauce instead. I never had the original cookies so I don't know how it effected them at all. In some recipes I'm going to say it's probably not replaceable, especially in traditional baked goods and pastries but in heartier items (muffins, oatmeal cookies, breads) I've never had a problem using the applesauce trick.
Hi! I'm a vivid reader of your site! Just wanted to ask how do you remove the oil without compromising on flavour? and what do you replace it? I've tried replacing oil in pastries and cookies with applesauce and even yoghurt but it never works!Thanks in advance! 😀
Jules - I have already severely reduced the sugar (original recipe called for over a cup) and added the honey to help. They cookies were just sweet enough for us. You could try to cut it out completely and just up the honey or replace with any of your sweet substitutes but I'm not sure how they would come out. I'm going to guess it will be fine.
I love pumpkin anything...and 5 cookies for 3 points sounds like a worthy investment 😀 Can't wait to try them...could agave syrup be subbed for the sugar or would less sugar be ok? Or brown sugar?...
Sarah - I use a couple of website to calculate the nutritional info... (this is from my about that's why it sounds corny)
I use a combination of websites, nutritiondata.com, fitday.com, and sometimes sparkpeople.com. I measure everything on my handy dandy electronic scale and tally up the totals. It’s really not that hard, just time consuming.
Then I just use my point calc.... http://ronisweigh.com/ronis-resources/wwp-calculators
Hope that helps!
What do you use to calculate the points of your recipes? I find this to be a pretty laborious process.
I have a 2 yr old that would loooove to make these with me. Ok actually she mostly likes making a mess and trying to eat everything when I turn my back, but I think we'll both love them! I'm a new flax convert and started adding it to everything. I like the taste, and the nutritional addition to food.
For the gluten I wonder how a combo of rolled oats and oat flour would be. Always worth a try!
WOW - great, now need to make it gluten free and soy free for my family members.