These store cupboard friendly vegan banana oat chocolate chip cookies are a wonderful breakfast or snack. With just 7 ingredients (3 of which are technically optional), all of which are probably already in your kitchen, these vegan oat cookies can be whipped up within 20 minutes. Plus, they’re also fairly versatile with your choice of chocolate and nuts and are flourless, eggless, dairy-free, and gluten-free!
I’ve been cooking healthy meals and tons of DIY’s more and more during the extra time at home for the last couple of months. However, we all deserve a treat and these healthy oatmeal cookies are one of the simplest, quickest ones to make. Not only are they a great way to use up ripe bananas, but they’re also a great recipe to get the kids involved. I love banana breakfast dishes in general and often add them as a filling and topping for these Fluffy Japanese Style Pancakes, mashed up within overnight oats like The Best 5 healthy Dessert Inspired Overnight Oats, and of course mashed into oatmeal and as part of a delicious smoothie bowl, like this Rose & Raspberry Smoothie bowl (I have tons of other smoothie bowl recipes for you here in the blog too).
This recipe is 100% dairy-free too – which means no egg, butter or milk (or even dairy-free alternatives of these). And are even refined sugar-free too. Instead, these cookies are made with a mixture of ripe banana, oats, chocolate, maple syrup, coconut oil with hazelnut and chocolate fillings. Plus, these healthy oatmeal cookies also naturally gluten-free (as oats are actually gluten-free). However, I know that there are specific ‘gluten-free oats’ available – so feel free to use them, if preferred. The resulting cookies are soft and chewy with a kind of banana oatmeal flavour that can be easily customised to taste.
Different Flavour Options: There are various ways you can customise these vegan banana oat cookies to your tastes and what you have available in your kitchen. For example:
Chocolate: feel free to use your chocolate of choice – dark, milk, white (or even ruby if you have any) Nuts: swap out the nuts for your nut of choice – walnuts are a delicious option or even cashews, peanuts etc. Seeds: as well as nuts, seeds are a great way to add flavour, texture and nutrients to your cookie. I.e. Chia, pumpkin, flax etc. Spices: are a simple and easy way to customise these cookies. I.e. with Cinnamon, vanilla, ginger, nutmeg etc. I also use homemade vanilla extract sometimes. Dried fruit: small pieces of dried fruit are a great way to jazz up these cookies. If using raisins just make sure to soak them first, so they don’t burn in the oven. Fresh Fruit: depending on how ‘wet’ they are, this can affect the texture of your cookies slightly but you could add apple, raspberries, blueberries etc. Grated Vegetables: Because, why not? Grated carrot could work amazingly for carrot cake inspired cookies, or even grated zucchini Coconut: whether it’s flakes or desiccated, coconut adds a little bit of texture and flavour the cookies. You can see my DIY for Coconut Bowls, chips & Shredded (desiccated) too.
The Recipe How-To:
Needed:
rolled oats hazelnuts banana cinnamon (can also add ginger powder or your favourite spice) and salt dark chocolate chip or chopped chocolate bar coconut oil maple syrup (I like to keep mine refined sugar free, it also helps with making a sticky mixture)
The Steps:
Start by making the oat flour by grinding half of the oats. You can do this is a spice grinder or a blender/food processor. Chop the hazelnuts roughly – some smaller and larger bits are fine. You could also blitz them in a blender for a second, to crush them (especially if you want smaller pieces).
If you don’t have chocolate chips and only a bar of chocolate, then chop that too, into smaller pieces.
In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients – rolled oats, oat flour, hazelnuts, chocolate, cinnamon and salt.
In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients – mash the banana and add the coconut oil and maple syrup. Mix thoroughly to combine. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. Make sure to incorporate well. If the mixture seems too dry, add a bit more maple syrup or coconut oil. If you want to add any additional ingredients then you can add them now too. Make small balls from the mixture. You can use a measuring spoon to scoop out the same amount of the mixture if you’d like. Place the balls on a baking sheet with parchment paper and slightly flatten the balls using your hands or a small cup. These cookies won’t spread in the oven at all so you can fit them as close to each other as you like.
Bake in the oven at 170ºC (fan-assisted) for 10-12 minutes. If you like the cookies to be more crunchy and golden, leave them a couple of extra minutes in the oven but keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.
Let them cool to room temperature before removing from the baking tray and transferring to an airtight container or a cookie tin. These can be kept at room temperature for up to a week or frozen for up to 3 months.
Other Vegan Recipes You May Like
For another delicious banana-based treat you might like my Banana Bread and Homemade Nutella. Alternatively, how about this Chocolate Orange Vegan Leopard Print Cake / Brioche or Almond Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies Recipe. If tarts are more your thing then I have plenty of options including this Two-layer Vegan Strawberry Tart, Vegan Red Wine and Mocha Tart Recipe, or this Vegan Earl Grey Blueberry Tart.
