I love baking especially cookies but the sugar! and the butter! help!

May 29, 2024 10:24 AM

I recently made these brownies - they are sweetened with dates, flourless, eggless and delicious. I'm looking for more similar baked things of the cookie variety in hopes of making similarly delicious and more healthful varieties. If you have a recipe like this that you love, please share! (Also I miss the mefi holiday cookie exchange- that was so fun).
posted by bluesky43 to Food & Drink (15 answers total)

I have made this chickpea cookie dough sweetened with dates and dark chocolate chips, it was delicious.

I have also made chocolate hummus (I know it's not a cookie but...) and that was fantastic too.

Getting away from the chickpea theme, I have made these eggless paneer-and-date no bake "cheesecake" cups and it was a huge hit with my whole family. Don't go in expecting it to taste/feel like traditional new york cheesecake, this cheesecake is a bit more grainy and tastes like dates. It is its own type of delicious dessert.
posted by MiraK at 11:11 AM on May 29

I love this recipe for vegan banana oatmeal cookies. They're in my top five cookies of all time. Don't skimp on the cinnamon and feel free to double the banana.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 11:48 AM on May 29

These are amazingly good! I can't eat just 1...or 2...
I use regular choco chips and no peanuts.

https://beamingbaker.com/peanut-butter-banana-oatmeal-cookies-healthy-recipe/
posted by bookworm4125 at 12:18 PM on May 29

I don't know if this counts as healthy enough or not, but I love this vegan tofu based chocolate pie, probably even more than my spouse, who can't have dairy, does.
posted by hydropsyche at 12:21 PM on May 29

I don't like desserts that are super sweet, and generally find that I can halve the sugar content on most cookie recipes. I wouldn't call the cookies I make "healthy" but they are certainly less intensely sweet. Blackstrap molasses also is better in terms of being low on the glycemic index, and it has a lot of nutrients in it - I wouldn't call molasses cookies a health food exactly, but they aren't devoid of nutrition.
posted by coffeecat at 12:33 PM on May 29

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar has a chapter on wholesome cookies with alternative sweeteners. I've baked them all and they've all been winners. That book is from a trilogy of very fetching and rewarding dessert books.
posted by tovarisch at 12:39 PM on May 29

A bar cookie, kinda? Twix-ish bars with almond flour crust, a peanut butter layer, and a chocolate chip layer. Has maple syrup, but no refined sugar.
posted by librarina at 3:32 PM on May 29

Flourless black bean brownies may be relevant to your interests
posted by potrzebie at 4:39 PM on May 29

These oatmeal tahini cookies are great, just a few ingredients, and no flour and they actually stick together and taste good. Great breakfast cookies, I add chocolate chips and usually a bit more oatmeal than the recipe calls for.
posted by lafemma at 8:27 AM on May 30

Not cookies but I love these healthy banana muffins and make them all the time. Whole wheat flour, flaxsseed, no oil, very little sugar.
posted by radioamy at 3:55 PM on May 30

I love this recipe for vegan banana oatmeal cookies. They're in my top five cookies of all time. Don't skimp on the cinnamon and feel free to double the banana.

I made these this evening with whole wheat flour (and just one banana) and they're incredible. Works very well with dark/semisweet chocolate chips, and probably with walnuts, too.
posted by May Kasahara at 5:48 PM on May 30

Thanks all for the suggestions. For 'typical' recipes, I do decrease sugar by about half and typically up the spices. What I really like about the recipe I linked in the original post is that the sugar comes from dates and the lack of butter and flour. If you have recipes similar (fruit based sweetening, nut butter and so on) that fit that profile, please share!
posted by bluesky43 at 5:27 PM on June 6

I don't have any experience baking in this style myself, but I saw an article about sugarless baking in the Guardian the other day, talking specifically about using naturally sweet things (like dates) instead of sugar, honey etc. There's a recipe in the article for a gluten-free, dairy-free, date-sweetened coffee panna cotta, but more relevantly, it mentions the book Good & Sweet by Brian Levy, which is full of recipes sweetened with fruit, nuts and so on rather than sugar. I'm not sure how well it'll satisfy your other requirements, but still, worth a look?
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:58 AM on June 7

This non-cookie has a bit of maple syrup in the crust (almond flour) and the ganache (coconut oil + cocoa powder), but the main filling of the tart is mostly just dates, coconut oil, and walnuts: Gluten-Free Chocolate Date Caramel Walnut Tart
posted by librarina at 1:17 PM on June 7

Thank you all! the Good&Sweet book looks like a great starting point!
posted by bluesky43 at 5:13 PM on June 11