Gluten free, sugar free, oil free, and vegan peanut butter banana protein cookies are about the best snack you'll ever make despite all those free-froms. Peanut butter acts as the fat here, adding piles of flavour, with banana and dates sweetening these little protein packed bites. With a little chocolate, too, of course.
Course Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine Vegan
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 18 minutesminutes
Total Time 28 minutesminutes
Servings 16cookies
Ingredients
2largeoverripe bananas
½cupdatespacked
½cupunsweetenednatural peanut butter*
1teaspoonpure vanilla extract
1 ½cupsquick-cook oats*
¼cupchopped nuts*
¼cupchia seeds
¼cupdark chocolate chips
1teaspooncinnamon
1teaspoonbaking powder
½teaspoonsalt
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
If you have a food processor, whiz up the bananas, dates, peanut butter, and vanilla until completely smooth. Otherwise, mash everything very well with a fork. Soak the dates beforehand if they aren't very soft, especially if you're not using a processor.
In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, chia, chocolate chips, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Add the banana mixture and mix until fully incorporated. It's pretty hard to mix, don't give up!
Take heaped tablespoons of the mixture and shape into rough balls with your hands. Place onto the baking sheet about an inch apart. They don't spread very much, so don't worry about that.
Bake for 18-20 minutes at 350F. Remove from the oven and place the baking sheet on a cooling rack for a couple of minutes, or until the bites can be handled. Remove and cool completely on the rack. Keep refrigerated or frozen.
Notes
1. If your peanut butter has salt listed as an ingredient, cut the amount of added salt in half.
2. To be guaranteed gluten free, make sure your oats say that they are. Oats are naturally gluten free but are often contaminated by wheat in processing facilities.
3. Use whatever nuts you have on hand. I used pecans, but I think walnuts would be really nice too.