Louisiana Kitchen Stories
Stories, photographs, and recipes from Louisiana kitchens.
Semi-Virtuous Cookies
I call these “semi-virtuous” cookies because they contain mostly virtuous ingredients, although they’re not so healthy that they’re boring. Don’t skimp on the chocolate chips – you’re already skipping the butter, refined sugar, and flour – the inclusion of chocolate chips is non-negotiable. I should also mention that the cookies come together really quickly with the use of a food processor, my MVP in the arena of kitchen gadgets.
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 ripe banana, chopped
- 1 egg
- 1/8 teaspoon almond extract (or about 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1.5 cups old-fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips, plus more for topping
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a food processor, puree the maple syrup, banana, egg, and almond extract until completely smooth. Add the salt, baking soda, cocoa powder, and old fashioned oats. Pulse vigorously for a few minutes, until the mixture is well combined and some of the oats have broken down into a flour-like consistency (a mixture of whole oats and chopped oats is okay). Add 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips and blitz just a few times to incorporate them into the batter.
Dollop the batter onto the baking sheet, using 1-2 tablespoons of batter per cookie. The cookies can stay pretty close together because they don’t spread much. Top each cookie with a few extra chocolate chips to ensure that each bite of cookie has a bit of delicious chocolate chip in it (let’s be honest – these cookies are just an excuse to eat chocolate chips!).
Bake the cookies for 10 minutes and remove from the oven. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before enjoying or transferring to a plate to cool further. These taste best slightly warm and will dry out the longer they sit at room temperature (a quick reheat in the microwave will get you back to that melty-chocolatey consistency).
Makes about 16 cookies
Louisiana Kitchen Stories 