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A Heart-Healthy Cookie
October 2, 2007 | 56 Comments
Joanna at Joanna’s Food and the Heart of the Matter Blog manages one of our favourite food blogging events.
She posed a challenge yesterday.
You’ll have realised by now that this post is a cry for help … we’re looking for heart-healthy baking recipes. That means NO butter and not much marge. Not many egg yolks. No cream. No cheese to speak of. Not a lot of oil, even if it is olive oil. You see the problem. Off the top of my head, we’re down to meringues and macaroons. As we’re all after a healthier lifestyle, and as SO many food bloggers like to bake, I feel sure that you’ve all got at least one delicious yet low-fat cake or biscuit recipe that you use in your kitchen … you’d be doing me, and countless others, a huge favour if you’d share it.
This recipe was created last night. We hardly ever bake cookies, ‘cos each cookie recipe seems to start with 1/2 cup butter, and crazy amounts of sugar. We set out to make something different, and ended up with these. They tasted great, and took 20 minutes, start to finish. (We didn’t wait for them to cool down 
)
The fat in these cookies comes from nut butter. Peanuts, almonds, cashews or hazelnuts can be used for this. Nut butters are also a protein-rich spread on toast.
NUT BUTTER
(From Slashfood)
For half cup nut butter
1 cup chopped nuts (we used skinned, slivered almonds)
1.5 to 2 tbsps oil
Blend these together to a smooth paste. (If you wish to use this as a spread, add a pinch each of salt and sugar)
HEART-HEALTHY COOKIES
(Makes 12 small cookies)
1/2 cup almond butter
1 tablespoon oat bran or ground oatmeal
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds (or oat bran/ground oatmeal)
3 tablespoons sugar (we used raw cane sugar) **see note below
1/2 tsp unsulphured molasses (optional)
1 egg white (2 tablespoons)
1/2 tsp grated orange zest
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
a few drops of almond extract (optional)
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tablespoons dried cranberries (or dried cherries/raisins)
**We use 1/2 to 1/3 of the amount of sugar recommended in any recipe. Even 3 tablespoons was sweeter than we liked. You may not find this sweet enough. Taste the batter and add more sugar if you wish to.
**The egg can be replaced with 1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbsp water
** The molasses is for a deeper flavour. Half the sugar can be replaced with jaggery for a similar effect.
** If you want a crisper cookie, add more oat bran to make a drier batter and bake longer.
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicone.
2. Mix everything except the cranberries in a bowl. It will be a very sticky mass – like thick glue. Add the cranberries and mix lightly.
3. Take a tablespoon and spoon 12 roughly equal portions on to the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
4. Bake for 11-13 minutes until the cookies are golden along the edges.
5. Let them rest for a few minutes. Take a spatula and carefully place them over a wire rack to cool and set completely.
Also see our heart-healthy Applesauce-Oatmeal Raisin Cake
UPDATED: October 28, 2007: Roundup here.
Joanna also honoured us with the Nice Matters Award. Thank you, Joanna. We are surprised and touched.
We would like to pass it on to all our readers and blogger friends who make their presence felt here with their comments, suggestions and encouragement. For years, we visited blogs and lurked on the sidelines without leaving comments. We either weren’t sure what to say for fear of appearing foolish, or thought it was not important to acknowledge how much we enjoyed the fruits of someone else’s hard work and creativity.
Now, when we have our own little corner in cyberspace, we realise how much feedback and encouragement mean to a blogger. A lot of effort goes into maintaining a public forum like a blog. Thank you for letting us know when you drop by, and for helping us improve this blog with your interaction, wisdom, praise and constructive criticism. It’s nice to have an idea of whose lives we touch, and in what ways.
There are three people in particular – Manisha, Musical and Nirmala – who our spam filters have been harassing for months. Yet, they doggedly lend us their encouragement and support. If their comments don’t reach us, they send us e-mails. They don’t have to, but they do.
Thank you.
Filed Under: Almond, Cranberry, Flax seeds, heart-healthy-cookie, low-fat, nut-butter, NUTRITION, Oats, vegetarian recipes
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56 Comments
Beautiful work, friends!
Hi Bee & Jai,
Another wonderful heart healthy recipe…i am going to make them soon….
Bee-Thanks for sending the names of the bread making cook books.Really helpful.
Rashmi.
The cookies make me wanna sing “Mera dil tere liye dhadakta hai (my heart beats for you)
Hey, and thanks for the really lovely note…..i love this space…..and the cookies above
I’ll try this for the crispier version you suggested.
cheers,
musical.
I *love* your blog. Sometimes I wonder if I am harassing you with my comments but if I am or did, hey, you guys never let on! So thank you!
Those cookies look so decadent, it’s hard to believe that they are heart healthy!
Those are really, really good and healthy cookies. I would say ‘Ye dil mange more (not peacock)’
Congrats on the award!
Fabulous cookies. And no flour either!
Those cookies look really nice, we used to get muesli cookies that looked like those (darker) here, with a red berry or two in them but now they’re a ground mass of brown and I’ve stopped buying them. Congrats on the award.
A question: What do you do with the yolks of eggs, Bee has said she doesn’t like those.
we either feed the yolks to the plants, or buy cartons of egg whites. – b.
Just fantabulous!
The cookie look rich.
Its been a long time since I baked cookies. Thanks for reminding that guys. Beautiful cookies.
Hi Bee,
that is one just for me!!..was looking for something of low-cal as far as cookies and cakes were concerned..
woh, the picture looks fantastic! i know the cookies are absolutely delicious..:)
bee, thanks for visiting my site!
Cookies made from home-made but butter. How better can it get?
That’s a really nice gesture on your part to create recipes for people who are unable to eat fatty things.
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Bee, just wanted to grab something from the picture atleast one! Very nice. Viji
The kind of cookies I absolutely adore…very ‘nice’ indeed…after all, this is a ‘nice ‘place to be.
Nice cookies… I can imagine why you didn’t wait for them to cool… I’m surprised you exercised restraint long enough to click a picture
Very nice looking cookies, fabulously baked. Thanks Bee!
Enjoy your award, nice does matter! It’s cruel enough World already!:))
Wow delicious looking cookies. I really appreciate your thought and hard work in everything you cook. Congrats on the award…You are the nicest
The cookies look great.
:bow: Such a quick entry! Oatmeal Raisin Cookies was the first recipe that crossed my mind when I read the theme on Joanna’s blog. I love the salted version.
wow! so quick n healthy. don’t remember ever baking a cookie, but this sounds like something i may try
do u toast the nuts a bit before u make the butter?
we usually toast the nuts lightly before freezing them. – b.
Bee
For this nut butter, when you say you used almonds, is this soaked and peeled almonds? Let me know.
Thanks
-altoid
pre-skinned almonds, pre-slivered too. – b.
The almond butter is a new one for me…I almost never eat cookies owing to the fat content in them…now you have given me a reason to go get some….sigh!!!
The cookies look so good Bee, hard to believe they are heart-healthy!
Thanks for the wonderful recipe..
Congratulations bee n Jai for the award! You guess deserve it! Thanks for the recipe too, I need quite some recipes like this!
i am so tired of the same old comment i put in ur blog.. but here goes anyway
lovely pic, amazing recipe.. wish i got a bite of that!
Love all things healthy…cookies stack looks lovely.
Wonderful cookies….very healthy. Feel like grabbing a ciuple of them.
waw I love cranberry or raisins in cookies. they look so cute:)
Delicious looking…healthy cookies…..Thanks a ton for the recipe
Great job 
Congrats on the award!! :yes: :horn:
Bee,thanks once again for stopping by my blog the other day and doing what you did. It was a really nice gesture!
Well, if you put it that way…
. Delurking to say that you have a fabulous blog going here. Your pictures are breathtaking and the focus on healthy recipes just makes it all the more enticing. I particularly loved your post on the various kinds of sugar substitutes. Keep writing!
lovely cookies!!!! feels like having one of those….
I am always on the hunt for low fat/calorie recipes. I was browsing the other day for low fat muffins which i wanted to send it to my friend. I am glad to see the cookies. For now i will skip muffins and will make the cookies.
Thanks bee!
Love the cookie recipe…delicious and healthy, what else could one ask for !
Congrats on the award…its well deserved.
LOVE this … thanks for sharing … and I can see from all these comments that there’s a real need for good healthy baking recipes – and this one looks as if it will satisfy many sweet cravings!
Joanna
joannasfood.blogspot.com
These look so good and no butter. I love the addition of cranberries.
I just now read the article in rediff.com featuring your blog. Congrats and best wishes.
Am so ignorant u know. I read this full post only today! Thanks for mentioning my name. But Bee its 100% true that how much a comment counts for a blogger! I am so happy to have a big crowd who can pat me even for my amateur trials and photos.
Baking without butter? Nice…I can mix this with hand no belnder needed. As both of my parents are heart patients this is a must try recipe! Thanks a lot!
Hey, congrats on the award guys!
I can just imagine the intense nutty flavour in this cookie and the pic? totally awesome! (gosh I’m sounding like my students!) (lol)
Hi,
I was trawling for vegan recipes when I hit yr blog. I love it! Yr food shots are indescribably beautiful!!
Just a tad curious tho- are u lacto-ovo-vegetarians?
thank you, dear seetha. we are lacto-ovo vegetarians. bee tries to be vegan from time to time (with limited success. yogurt is her undoing.)
Bee
Show me your feet, so I can fall at them
. Dad’s here and he LOVES cookies and I’ve been debating whether to make him the usual batch of oatmeal raisin ones(considering his cholestrol and sugar needs to be kept in check). When I bookmarked this recipe, since I had all other ingredients- except for raw sugar(which I’ve been meaning to add to my pantry for a long time), I sped to the grocery store this weekend and in no time had a wonderful batch of these heart friendly cookies. My God, tastes wonderful too.
I made the substitute for egg, that you suggested. And left out the molasses.
Thanks to you, dad now has a healthy batch of cookies to take back home. God bless you.
-altoid
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