Aiko's Healthy Bomb Cookies
A family recipe from Aiko, kept in its original shape: everything in one bowl, rolled into balls, baked round. The family version binds with an egg and uses a store-bought gluten free flour blend, which is mostly refined rice starch. This one swaps in a flax egg and home-ground oat flour, so the binding and the flour both stay whole food, and the cookie stays gluten free if your oats are certified. Dates, raisins, and half a ripe banana do all the sweetening. The amounts came down from memory, so judge the dough by feel: it should roll into a clean ball on a damp palm, and the roll step says how to correct it in either direction. Unlike most cookies on this site, these carry a teaspoon of baking powder, so they bake up light and cakey instead of dense, closer to a little domed muffin top than a chewy bar. The browner the banana, the sweeter the batch.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Almond flour
- 1 1/4 cups Rolled oats, 3/4 cup blended to a fine flour, the rest left whole
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 3 Medjool dates, pitted, soaked 10 minutes in hot water
- 1/2 whole Bananas, very ripe
- 1/2 cup Raisins
- 1 tbsp Ground flaxseed, for the flax egg
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Method
- Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment. Pit the dates and soak them in hot water for 10 minutes. Stir the ground flaxseed into 3 tbsp (45 ml) water and set it aside; in 10 minutes it thickens into the flax egg that binds the dough.
- Blend 3/4 cup (68 g) of the oats to a fine powder. That is oat flour: still the whole grain, just ground at home, and it matches the weight of the refined flour blend it stands in for. Leave the remaining 1/2 cup (45 g) whole for chew.
- Drain the dates, keeping 2 tbsp of the soaking water, and puree them with the banana, vanilla, and reserved water until no lumps remain. Lumps bake into gummy spots.
- Whisk the almond flour, ground oats, whole oats, and baking powder together so the leavening is even, then fold in the date puree and the flax gel until no dry patches remain. Fold in the raisins last. The dough is thick and a little sticky, which is right.
- Roll the dough into 10 spheres, about 2 tbsp (45 g) each, with damp hands, and space them on the sheet. The dough should roll clean off a damp palm: if it smears, work in more whole oats a tablespoon at a time; if it crumbles, a splash of the date soaking water. Leave the balls round: they barely spread, and the shape keeps the centers soft while the outsides set.
- Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until the bottoms brown and the outsides feel dry to a light touch. Cool on the sheet for 5 minutes; they are fragile hot and firm up as the starches set.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 130 calories, 3 g protein, 3 g fiber, 50 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
