16 Healthy Cookie Recipes That Are Insanely Delicious

photo source: beamingbaker.com

Healthy Cookie Recipes

If you can’t help but drool over these gorgeous 16 healthy cookie recipes, I will tell you right now you are in for a treat!

Soft, perfectly textured cookies with healthy ingredients such as pumpkin, chocolate, peanut butter, oats or coconut. Get ready to dive in!

Are Homemade Cookies Healthier?

Due to using fresh whole food ingredients with no preservatives, home made cookies can be healthier than store bought cookies.

Packed with healthy fats, nuts and fiber, these cookies can hardly be considered a “junk” food.

How To Make Cookies Healthy For You

Go for gluten free flours, healthy proteins and fats with low glycemic sugars. The recipes below are lower in sugar than the average cookie recipe. Include nutritious ingredients such as oatmeal or almonds.

Health Benefits Of Specific Ingredients

Let’s focus on the health benefit of some of the ingredients used in the recipes.

Health Benefit Of Peanut Butter

Promotes growth of muscles and bones
Helps to lower cholesterol
Rich in antioxidants
Reduces risk of gallstones
Relieves constipation
High in potassium
Reduces risk in heart disease
Reduces risk of diabetes

Why Go For Natural Peanut Butter

Natural peanut butter does not contain partially hydrogenated oil, the trans fat-laden ingredient that makes classic peanut butter silky smooth.

It also does not contain sugar or salt.

Fresh, ground peanut butter is more nutritious than regular peanut butter.

In a perfect world, natural peanut butter would contain only peanuts and salt and yes there are brands out there that are truly natural peanut butter.

How To Solve Oil Separation

Leave your natural peanut butter jars upside down overnight before stirring the peanut butter.

The oil will rise to the bottom of the jar making the stirring process much cleaner, easier, and more efficient. Try it.

Next what are the benefits of gluten free oats.

Why Choose Gluten Free Oats

Most commercial oats are processed in facilities that also process barley, rye and wheat.

The gluten in these ingredients can contaminate the oats, and the nature of most gluten intolerances is that even a trace amount of gluten can cause severe discomfort.

So one box of conventional oats may not create a reaction for a gluten-intolerant person, but then the next box might.

It’s best to completely avoid conventionally grown oats when cooking so try to choose gluten free oats instead.

Is Oat Flour Considered Gluten Free

Yes.

Can You Replace Flour With Oat Flour

Yes. 1 cup of oat flour grind with 1 1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats.

Oatmeal cookies are considered healthy due to the added fiber. They have a lower glycemic index than other cookies.

Final ingredient to look at is shredded coconut.

Shredded Coconut

There are two types of shredded coconut, sweetened and unsweetened.

How To Make Shredded Coconut

Raw coconut meat is boiled, grated, and dried.

Next, dehydrated shreds are packaged and distributed as unsweetened coconut or soaked in a liquid sugar solution, dried again to make sweetened coconut.

Is Unsweetened Shredded Coconut Good For You

Yes. Rich in fiber and MCTs, it offers a few benefits, which includes weight loss, digestion and improved heart health.

How Do You Store Unsweetened Shredded Coconut

Place shredded coconut in an airtight container, then store in your refrigerator for up to a week. Or store in your freezer, up to six months, for longer shelf life.

See our resource below for healthy desserts along with the list of healthy cookie recipes.