Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Almond Banana Cookies



I have a really simple go-to peanut butter cookie recipe, as do many gluten-free bakers. Mix one cup of peanut butter (use the fake kind), one cup of sugar and one egg in a bowl and drop teaspoon-sized amount of the dough onto a baking sheet. Bake for about ten minutes; pretty easy, huh? They are awesome cookies and so simple to put together -- and really are crowd pleasers, but they're not that great for you. One cup of sugar? Processed peanut butter? Fine in moderation, but I needed an everyday cookie.

Nutritionally speaking, almonds are great (to find out how great, click here), so I wanted to base my cookie around the jar of smooth, natural almond butter sitting in my cabinet, but I wanted to use a lot less sugar than the peanut-butter cookie recipe and I've always found brown sugar more appealing, so I used a bit of that. I like to smear my bananas in almond butter, so I threw in half of one, and from knowing the very basics of baking I knew I needed an egg and some baking soda in there. So, voila -- almond banana cookies are born. They're a not-too-sweet, easy to put together, guilt-free cookie with a cake-like texture. And boy, they went well with my coffee this morning (that one's for you, Dad).

Almond Banana Cookies (gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian)

1 cup of smooth, natural almond butter
1/4 cup of brown sugar (I'm sure agave nectar, or another sugar alternative would work well here)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 of banana, mashed
1 teaspoon baking soda
Dash of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Next, in heaping teaspoons -- drop the batter onto a cookie sheet, spacing each cookie an inch or so apart. Flatten the cookies a bit with the palm of your hand, or with the bottom of a glass. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Makes fifteen cookies.


8 comments:

K Allrich said...

I love this photo! The ears- the look. The expectation. And the recipe sounds yummy, too. Have you tried sunflower butter? It has a fabulous roasted nutty taste.

Tiffany said...

Good Eatah-What a beautiful blog! I will be making these yummy looking muffins tonight...what a delightful little nugget of joy to look forward to :)

Hope you dont mind that I have linked to your blog, I'll enjoy checking back often :)

Liz said...

Thanks, Karina! I was pleased with how it turned out too. Something about the yellow tennis ball in the corner of the photo is appealing to me. It's funny how Henry will assume that because I'm holding a piece of food, he needs to do something, like "sit" for it.

Hi Tiffany! Welcome! They were so simple to put together. I was thinking that these would be tasty with chocolate chips in them (but really, what wouldn't be?) if you're a chocaholic like me. Thanks for the link on your blog!

Liz said...

Oops, also Karina -- I haven't tried sunflower butter, but I have been meaning to. I rely a bit too much on nuts and would like to get some more protein from seeds. I'll have to search your recipes for a good sunflower butter one :)

Anonymous said...

These do look good--and very healthy :). Poor Henry, though--couldn't he have just a teeny bite?

aTxVegn said...

I'm gluten intolerant and I'm so happy to have discovered your blog! These cookies look terrific!

Tiffany said...

Silly me, I called them muffins. :) Well they are dang good either way!

Simply...Gluten-free said...

This is getting my creative juices flowing. Great recipe make over! VEry nice blog. I am going to add you to my blog roll.