Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookie

Guys, my jaw is on the floor right now. You will NOT believe what just happened.

Background:

I have been trying to eat well/’clean’, for the past couple of years; it’s still a struggle and a process to find alternatives for refined/processed food, but it’s happening. So, I read about “2 ingredient cookies” by Blogilates (a totally awesome blog, BTW). It sounded too awesome to be true — and, in some respects, it was. The first time I made them, they were mushy and had this weird banana after taste (surprise, surprise?). They were okay, but they weren’t enough for me to give up ‘normal’, full fledged cookies.

Today, I read about reports talking about the dangers of processed white sugar. Apparently, it’s horrible*. I knew that, but now studies are directly linking it with some serious conditions (eg. diabetes, and heart disease). So… I decided to tackle the Blogilates recipe again.

I used her recipe as a base – and I think it’s perfect for that. You have the banana which acts as the glue, and the oats which act like the flour. From that stage, you can add ANYTHING you want!

So, I decided to go and take 1/2 a banana and 1/2 cup of oats together. I then added 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and a dash of vanilla extract.

That should give it some flavor, but then I remembered how the cookies were a bit soft, and I like crunchy cookies! So I went into our cereal cardboard and got some cereal that had bran flakes, puffed oats etc. and mixed it in. I also remembered that we had sunflower seed butter and decided to add that in to deepen the flavor (I’m sure peanut butter would work the same way).

This is the cookie ‘batter’.

Finally, I added in a few chocolate chips because I’ve been craving chocolate and knew I would binge on it if I prolonged the torture any longer.

I plopped the (six) cookies on aluminum foil and slipped it into a toaster oven set, preheated 350F, for 20 minutes.

Off they go!

And… Ta-Dah!

The final product!

Totally different from the first time, these were crunchy and the cinnamon and vanilla gave it fragrance. The banana was totally hidden and just acted as a binder. (If you don’t want them crunchy, bake for less time.)

Now… here comes the amazing bit.

My brother and his friend are over at my house, playing on the computer downstairs. They paddle upstairs and go into the kitchen looking for chips, cookies and pop. Forcing my brother to eat a salad or oatmeal is like pulling teeth. I told them to try the cookies I made, and they went “okay!”.

them: “Are these homemade?”

me: “yes”

them: “Are they fresh?”

me: “just took them out 2 minutes ago”

(I love how they have such qualifications for the food they eat…)

and then….

“Wow! These are great!”

My eyes went like this: O.O. I thought they were great, a good alternative to ‘normal’ cookies, but definitely not something I saw my brother eating.

I asked them, “you know these are healthy right?”

They both looked at me, “No, but it doesn’t matter… they’re good. Where are the rest?”

(Here I admit that I ate 4 of the 6 and they only had 1 each.)

Then… They asked me to make more.

WHOA. Okay, this is a keeper.

So, I urge you to try and experiment with the base, add in whatever you feel would make them good. You might surprise yourself (and others!).

Cookie Base

makes 1 dozen

• 1 cup oats
• 1 banana

1. mash the banana
2. mix in the oats
3. bake on an aluminum sheet, in a preheated 350F oven for 15-20 minutes (closer to 20 minutes for crunchy cookies, and closer to 15 minutes for soft cookies)

Here’s my variation:

Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookie

makes 6 cookies

• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 teaspoon (any nut) butter
• 1/8 cup cereal (e.g. puffed rice, bran etc) (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• dash of vanilla extract
• chocolate chips

1. mash the banana
2. add in the vanilla extract and cinnamon, mix
3. add in nut butter, mix
4. add in oats, mix
5. add in cereal, mix
6. add in chocolate chips, mix
7. put on aluminum foil and place in a preheated 350F oven
8. bake for 15-20 minutes (closer to 20 minutes for crunchy cookies, and closer to 15 minutes for soft cookies)

Have you experimented with a recipe like this? What did you come up with?

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*great article, with sources to relevant studies