Break into this soft Flourless Banana-Nut Breakfast Cookie and relish the flavors of ripe bananas, ground cinnamon and melt-in-your-mouth Medjool dates. You’ll never go back to a processed counterpart. This recipe is excerpted from The Pure Kitchen(Pure Living Press, 2011), a unique and lovely cookbook filled with gluten-free and dairy-free recipes, tips and tricks for eating well, living pure and maximizing good health.
Flourless Banana-Nut Breakfast Cookies Recipe
Makes about 20 cookies – Vegan
Sweetened entirely with fruit, these flourless cookies make a delicious grab-and-go breakfast or satisfying afternoon snack. Soft and moist, they rely on quinoa flakes rather than flour for their structure. Quinoa flakes, essentially just steam-rolled quinoa, can be found in the bulk foods section of your natural foods store or in the hot cereal aisle.
1 cup (packed) pitted Medjool dates
2 cups quinoa flakes
2/3 cup (64 grams) blanched almond flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 medium very ripe bananas, peeled and broken into chunks
2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Cover the dates with hot water in a small bowl and soak for 10 minutes.
While the dates soak, whisk together the quinoa flakes, almond flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Drain the dates, reserving 1 tablespoon of the soaking liquid. Place the dates and reserved liquid into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the bananas, coconut oil, and vanilla. Process until the mixture is smooth and the dates are reduced to small flecks, about 1 minute. Pour the banana mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Stir in the pecans.
Drop heaping tablespoons of the dough onto the parchment-lined baking sheets. Flatten each cookie to 1/2-inch thick using the back of a spoon or your fingertips.
Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes or until lightly browned and firm to the touch. Cool completely on the baking sheets before serving or storing. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
For more healthy breakfast recipes, read the original article, “3 Healthy Vegetarian Breakfast Recipes.”
This excerpt has been reprinted with permission from The Pure Kitchen: Clear the Clutter from Your Cooking with 100 Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Recipesby Hallie Klecker, published by Pure Living Press, 2011.
