Trail Mix Cookies (or, Breakfast/Energy Bars)
2 medium sized bananas
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup molasses
1 tablespoon corn starch
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cloves
generous handful raisins
generous handful walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, prunes, and/or almonds, chopped (your choice)
3 cups quick oats
nonstick spray
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix thoroughly bananas, molasses, agave, corn starch, applesauce, water, and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients, leaving the oats and seeds/nuts until the end.
2. Lightly spray cookie sheet with nonstick vegetable spray. Dough will be heavy and grainy, more of a dough than a batter. Form dough into 16 balls, and flatten and shape into large, round cookies.
3. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookie holds together. Cool, and enjoy!
Source of recipe: The basis for this recipe came from an oatmeal cookie recipe in the Betty Crocker cookbook. I veganized it, and added a bunch of nutrition that I had on hand (substituting the flours, eggs, and butters, and adding the seeds and nuts). What turned out was a yummy, chewy, cereal bar type cookie. The dough can also be pressed into a shallow cookie pan, baked, and cut into cereal bars.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
these came out really good.
saying that, i did really alter the recipe.
first off, I halved the measurements of everything.
-instead of any of the agave or molasses. i used about 1/3 cup brown rice syrup.
-instead of applesauce or bananas i used about 1/2 a can of crushed pineapple(+it's juice. Doles brand, I think)
-added pumpkin seeds, walnuts, raisins, and sunflower seeds.
-added some orange extract, too
-instead of water i used vanilla soymilk
-And i added way more oats because the batter was a bit wet. so i used like 2iah cups of oats....
Annnnnd I had to bake them for way longer, but that's probably because I made them super thick.
Overall, yum!
:^
I followed oktokrewl's tropical fruit cookie suggestions. I added the suggested coconut and diced tropical fruit (diced papaya, diced apricots). For dessert one night, I drizzled mango-guava sauce over the cookies, serving them like a cake.
These are great! Perfect amount of sweetness, and a very nice texture and taste.. like the name says, they are perfect for breakfast.. I also had a bunch of tropical fruits I needed to use up, so I made this tropical themed trail mix cookies..
I am vegan so I dont use honey so I subbed agave nectar for the honey.. some previous commenters said it was a little heavy on the molasses, so I only used 1/4 cup of that and replaced the left over 1/4 cup with passionfruit jam..
The nuts I used were a large handful each of chopped pecans, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and chopped almonds..
The fruits I used were a large handful each of golden raisins, candied diced orange peel, and dried diced papaya..
I also added a mashed sapodilla (they have a nice maple/brown sugar flavor) and subbed mashed mango for the applesauce..
And the last thing I changed were that I replaced 1 cup of oats with 1 firmly packed cup of shredded fresh coconut and replaced the cloves w/ powdered ginger..
I highly recommend trying them this way.. it's a super tasty variety on a basic trail mix cookie.. and I did make them cookies instead of bars.. the recipe made about 32 fat cookies..
Delicious! And pretty darn healthy to boot. I have a huge sweet tooth but trying to cut down on heavy, unhealthy desserts. So I'm using this as something to satisfy my dessert cravings, minus the excess fat and refined sugar/flour, plus some nutritional value. I mashed the bananas but left it chunky. I'm vegan, so I didn't use honey, and I don't like too much molasses, so instead I used 1/2 cup of brown rice syrup (cheaper than agave nectar at my HFS), plus 2 Tbsp each of maple syrup and blackstrap molasses. I used arrowroot powder instead of cornstarch, about a cup of mixed dried fruit (raisins, dates, apples, cranberries), a cup of chopped walnuts, a cup of chocolate chips (still need a little chocolate fix!!), and added about 3 Tbsp of vanilla brown rice protein powder. I also used a little allspice and nutmeg - next time I may just use pumpkin pie spice. I pressed the dough into a jelly-roll pan and baked for 20 minutes, and as a last-minute addition I sprinkled the dough with shredded coconut. If you make 16 cookies out of this recipe, you will have HUGE cookies - I got 24 large bars out of this. Next time I'll halve the recipe, or I'll try freezing them. We'll see how they last... :-)
Maybe this is a dumb question, but are the bananas supposed to be mashed (like you would do when making banana bread) or chopped? Just curious, thanks!
These are fantastic!!! i made them as bars, half in the shape of bars and the other half in a shallow cake tin. I have already eaten two of the bars and they are great. I made them very fruity. A handful each of sultanas, chopped dried apricots, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds and then a handful of a premix (pepitas, almonds and cashews). So fruity and fantastic. oh and i didnt have any molasses so i just used maple syrup, and used egg replacer instead of cornstarch.
wonderful and yummy! perfect to grab first thing in the AM. I followed the recipe to a T and they came out grrreat!
:D