TL;DR: With a few ingredients and less than half an hour you can make and devour these surprisingly moist, delicious, and nutrient-packed cookie bites.
While I’m more of a savory and spicy kind of eater, I do have my soft spots when it comes to sweet stuff. Cookies are a certifiable weakness of mine. Especially the moist, buttery, and gooey kind. But in the better interests of my well being, I save such indulgences for special occasions or “cheat meals”. Sigh. But when I want my cookie and eat it too, I turn to these chocolate protein cookies.
These are low carb, macro-friendly cookies that also retain elements that make cookies undeniable — moisture, sweetness, richness. I swap the all-purpose flour with a combo of coconut flour and almond flour, which results in a nice rustic texture. Butter gets replaced with peanut butter and coconut oil. For moisture and sweetness (come on, you need some of that), bananas to the rescue. And last but certainly not least — and to earn its name — chocolate protein powder.
Oh, these are completely vegan. I honestly don’t miss the butter or eggs in these one bit.
I should say that I not a carbophobe. At all. I love carbs and celebrate their existence. With that said, everything in moderation right? I follow a flexible dieting protocol, which can be pretty carb-friendly depending on your body composition goals. If you’re interested, check out into the info over in the Nutrition and Fitness planning section.
Notes and Tips:
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I dig the texture of the almond and coconut flour combo. But if you don’t have coconut flour, just replace with more almond flour (so a total of 3/4 cups almond flour). I like Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour. If you don’t have almond flour…. DON’T just use all coconut flour. Or whatever, go ahead and do it. But I’ve found that coconut flour is best when used in combo with other flours, or in smaller amounts in general.
A lot of the flavor of these cookies will be from the protein powder you use. So, as with cooking with wine, choose a protein powder that you would drink on its own. I use MRM Veggie Elite Chocolate Mocha protein in this recipe. It’s might to be the most delicious one on the market, but it’s got nice and clean ingredients, and it’s one of the more wallet-friendly options out there.
One more note, when baking with bananas, I really like to use overripe ones. No, like really overripe ones. The kind that most people would have thrown away a long time ago. As a banana ripens, enzymatic changes happen and the starches break down into sugars, making it sweeter and sweeter. The total carbohydrates stay the same but an overripe banana will be extraordinarily sweet. This is great for this recipe as you want to get as much flavor as possible from just a few ingredients.
The Process: Mix the dry stuff, mix the wet stuff, mix the two together, separate onto a pan and bake. Vegan chocolate protein cookies in under a half hour.
Get the ingredients together. See what I mean about overripe bananas?
Combine all the dry ingredients thoroughly.
Lightly mash the bananas with the peanut butter and coconut oil. Don’t go too crazy here, banana chunks are your friends.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients until well blended. If too dry and crumbly, add either more banana, more coconut oil, or water.
Form into cookie balls and place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 15-18 minutes.
These chocolate protein cookies are pretty much ready to go out of the oven but you can let them settle for a couple of minutes to solidify a bit. I’m not a huge tea drinker but I really enjoyed this with herbal tea. Also these are great for a quick post workout snack. In a container in the fridge, they should last a week.
Vik Hebbar
Yields 20
Low carb chocolate protein cookies in under 10 ingredients and under 30 minutes.
10 minPrep Time
15 minCook Time
25 minTotal Time
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Ingredients
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup almond meal
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cinnamon
- 2 scoops vegan protein powder (MRM Veggie Elite Chocolate Mocha)
- 2 bananas
- 2 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, mix dry ingredients (coconut flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt, vegan protein powder) together until thoroughly and evenly blended.
- In another bowl, mash and fold together wet ingredients (bananas, peanut butter, and coconut oil). No need to mix too much.
- Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Stir or knead until dry ingredients are completely mixed in. If too dry, add additional moisture. An additional banana, more coconut oil, or water will work.
- Form dough into cookie-sized balls and place on pan.
- Bake in oven for about 15-18 minutes. This will make around 18-22 cookies.
Notes
Macros per cookie: 4g protein, 3g fat, 5g carbohydrates (2g fiber); 62 calories
Calories
Fat
Carbs
Protein
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