I am currently working on an 8 week fitness challenge where I only get one day where sweets are allowed. What does that mean? Google searches like the following: "natural candy", "healthy cookies", "sugar free cake", etc. In my Google search for healthy cookies I came across a recipe on Pinterest that someone had labeled "No-Bake Health Banana Cookies". I LOVE bananas, but have developed an allergy to them, so I sadly had to pass that by. Lucky for us though, Mattie is not allergic to bananas and tried this recipe out...and then sent the results to us.
The Original Pin
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| http://www.tastingpage.com/cooking/healthy-banana-cookies |
Looks like no bake cookies...sorta. Here's what Mattie had to say about them:
"So, spoiler alert--these are not no-bake cookies. You DO bake them and they do not taste like cookies. They taste like the 3 ingredients that the recipe boasted about: banana, oatmeal, and...wait a second. I'm beginning to see what went wrong here."
The Pinstrosity
"It started fairly mundane. I pulled my nasty old bananas out of the freezer, thawed them, slit open the peels and squeezed them into my mixing bowl. Then I added the oats (I even measured!). Then...well, I went off-script. I added cocoa powder, cinnamon, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. All good things. I covered my cookie sheet with foil, popped them in the oven and waited 15 minutes. I pulled them out and they were...bananas and oats. Amazingly, they had firmed up and I like the chewy texture, but I would guess they need a little fat, like walnuts as the recipe recommends or peanut butter. (I didn't use my peanut butter because I have the organic stuff right now and it's a little runny and I worried the cookies would just fall apart.) Plus, they stuck to the foil, so their firm little bottoms ripped off."
Anywho, I plan to take them to work as snacks, but I would do a couple things differently:
1) add a fatty ingredient. They are cookies, after all.
2) oil the cookie sheet (or foil).
3) Call them something besides cookies.
Cookie? Not Cookie. Sad sad day.
Is this the recipe that is vegan, sugar free, fat free, dairy free, gluten free? It uses coconut or almond milk, oats, bananas, raisins and applesauce? I made them last summer and they were so disgusting. My fiance' choked them down.....I wanted to toss the entire batch in the garbage. Thanks but I'll stick to full fat, full sugar, full gluten, full dairy baked goods.
ReplyDeleteI have made these and after baking ... they still taste like bananas and oatmeal. I did not find them to be a cookie replacement. Not at all.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you failed. I think this recipe is a failure.
Looks like granola snacks to me, definitely not cookies but not too pinstrositous either.
ReplyDeleteI can't stop laughing at the image of "their firm little bottoms ripped right off"
ReplyDeleteWe love these cookies in our house! We don't make many real fat+sugar+flour desserts. On the rare occasions when we want a real treat, we make the real thing. But when we want a portable and healthy snack to grab out of the freezer as we head to the park, these are fabulous. No, they are not a treat-cookie, but I think they make a great 1-hand-breakfast. I add craisins, dates, or sometimes a few mini chocolate chips.
ReplyDeleteI was looking for something for breakfast, so I thought I'd try this. Because of the warning on here I added a bit of butter and some cinnamon. I scooped about half of them ready to be baked, and then tasted the batter. It was so tasteless that I added a bit of syrup and salt to the rest of the batter. Baked them. Results were horrible. I kept them for when the kids came from school. Kid 1 tasted it, started crying, and spat it all out. After that reaction Kid 2 would not go close to it, so it all went into the dustbin.
ReplyDeleteThe sound similar to the granola bars I tried recently (however, the granola bars are no bake). The granola bars called for powdered peanut butter which I think adds the fatty taste that the cookies need (I think the bars taste yum). The bars are mushy and have to be refrigerated but I wonder what would happen if I bake them. Here's the recipe I followed, if anyone is interested: http://undressedskeleton.tumblr.com/post/47207593709
ReplyDeleteI made these just the other day at work as a healthy birthday treat for one of the kiddos. They turned out fantastic-everyone loved them including my co workers! I did the bananas, oats, peanut butter and chocolate chip version. They had a texture similar to muffin tops (soft and chewy) but were really delicious fresh out of the oven! I'd definitely make them again, only I'd press them down just a touch so they would feel more cookie-like as opposed to leaving them in ball formation. :)
ReplyDelete