Healthy oat and banana cookies
These oat, banana and chickpea flour cookies are baked without added sugar or saturated fat. Their sweetness comes from ripe banana, while oats and nuts provide filling fibre. They are a homemade alternative to commercially made pastries for children and adults who want to eat well as part of their usual diet.
At a glance
- Prep15 min
- Cooking15 min
- Total30 min
- DifficultyEasy
Allergens
- Gluten
- Tree nuts
Who this recipe is for
Homemade cookies with no added sugar or refined flour: suitable for children’s snacks or as a filling option if you are trying to lose weight.
Ingredients
Step by step
- Preheat the oven to 170 ºC for at least 15 minutes and line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Mash the ripe banana in a bowl and mix it with the rolled oats, chickpea flour, hazelnut spread, pure cocoa, cinnamon and desiccated coconut.
- Blend or stir well until you have a smooth, workable mixture. If it is too wet, add a few more oats.
- Use a spoon to shape small balls of mixture and place them on the lined baking tray.
- Flatten each ball with your hands or a fork to make round cookies.
- Press a piece of raw hazelnut gently into the centre of each cookie.
- Bake at 150 ºC for 15 or 20 minutes. Halfway through, carefully turn them over so they become golden and crisp on both sides.
- Leave the cookies to cool on a wire rack before serving so they can become crisp.
Adaptations
How to change it depending on the day. Each change keeps the dish, it does not replace it.
For people with coeliac disease or avoiding gluten
Make sure to use oats certified as gluten-free. Chickpea flour is naturally gluten-free.
For people with a nut allergy
Replace the hazelnut spread with sunflower seed butter or tahini (sesame), and garnish with pumpkin seeds instead of a piece of hazelnut.
For young children (from 12 months)
Finely chop or completely grind the hazelnuts used as a garnish to prevent choking, or replace them with a little desiccated coconut.
If you would like them sweeter without adding sugar
Add 2 or 3 pitted dates, soaked and blended with the banana, or a little extra cinnamon to the mixture.
What it provides
The combination of rolled oats and chickpea flour provides complex carbohydrates, fibre and a small amount of plant protein, which helps you feel full for longer. Since they contain no free sugars and are sweetened only with ripe banana, they avoid the blood glucose spikes associated with conventional baking, while hazelnuts provide beneficial unsaturated fats.
The dietitian's tip
Once cool, store them in an airtight glass jar to keep them crisp for two or three days. If you make them with children, it is a great opportunity to cook together and introduce them to homemade baking with fruit and whole grains, without relying on ultra-processed foods.
Discover more guidance in our children’s nutrition guide and our weight-loss plan. More breakfast and snack ideas: potato, courgette and onion omelette and melon and almond gazpacho.
What a recipe is not
This recipe fits into a plan; it does not replace one. It cures nothing and it is not calculated for one particular person: the quantities are indicative and will need adjusting to your case.
If you have a medical condition, take medication or follow a prescribed diet, check with your doctor or your dietitian before changing anything.
Where this recipe comes from
The main guide
School-age nutrition: what to eat from 6 to 12
Your child already eats at school and is making more choices about what they want to eat. Every afternoon, you find yourself…
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Would you like a plan made for you?
A recipe fits or does not fit depending on what is going on with you. In clinic we build the whole plan around what you eat, what you tolerate and what you fancy.