I decided in 2021 that I’m no longer eating any food that I don’t enjoy. I rarely find a bowl of oatmeal enjoyable, but I do love oatmeal cookies, which is how these came along. 4-6 of these are so filling, not a stitch of sugar and in my book so much better than oatmeal sludge. I hope you enjoy these too.

*Chocolate variation: replace 1/2 the flour with cocoa powder

Makes: 24 cookies

wet ingredients:

2 very ripe bananas

1/2 apple, grated

1/2 cup (110g) butter (or coconut oil)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

dry ingredients:

2 1/4 cups (200g) Quick oats (simply pulse regular oats in food processor)

3/4 cup (68g) oat flour (or flour of choice)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Maldon sea salt

optional: 2 teaspoons psyllium husk

2 Tablespoons ground flax seed

1/2 cup (50g) dessicated (fine) coconut

1/4 cup (33g) sunflower seeds

1/2 cup dried cranberries or sour cherries

Method:

1. *Use the food processor to make regular old-fashioned oats look like ‘quick’ oats if needed. You can also grind you own oat flour if you don’t have using the food processor. Complete these steps before adding any wet ingredients and set aside the oats.

2. Preheat the oven 350F/180C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

3. Using the food processor, blend all the wet ingredients until combined.

4. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, set aside.

5. In batches of 1/3rds add the dry ingredients to the food processor and blend until combined. **Important to note: the dough needs to look like regular, thick cookie dough. Sometimes the water content of the bananas changes things. If the dough is too dry add a little water. If the dough is too wet, add a little flour. It needs to come together into a big ball in the food processor. You can also refrigerate or freeze the dough for later.

6. Roll the dough into 24 balls and bake 12 at a time. Place them on a baking sheet and flatten with your hand or bottom of a glass.

7. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden.

8. These keep for 3-4 days in an air-tight container. They also freeze well too.