Nutritious Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies have been a great success with my family and in my cooking classes with kids and adults. The recipe is very forgiving, meaning you can play with the ingredients and make modifications and it still always turns out just fine. For example, I have used leftover pumpkin seed pulp from making a pumpkin seed milk in place of ground pumpkin seeds and it turned out so delicious both times. I hope you enjoy these nutrient packed cookies as much as we do. 

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas, ripe, mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup coconut oil, slightly heated
• 2 cups rolled oats*
• 1-2 tablespoons maple syrup or other sweetener
• 1/3 cup ground pumpkin seeds/almond flour/or pulp from pumpkin milk
• 1/3 cup cacao powder
• 1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 
• 5 oz chocolate chips
• 1-2 teaspoon Chaga mushroom powder (optional)

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the middle or top of oven
2. In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and heated coconut oil.
3. In another bowl, combine rest of the ingredients except chocolate chips. Mix dry ingredients until well combined and then add into wet ingredients. Mix everything together. If using seed pulp, use your hands to mix everything well together 
4. At the end, fold in chocolate chips.
5. Drop dollops of dough, each about 1-2 tablespoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
6. Bake for about 13-15 minutes or until golden on the bottoms. The cookies will fall apart if you try to pick them up right after taking them out of the oven so make sure to let them rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes and let them cool down before eating them. 

*Notes:
 - If you can’t have oats, try flattened rice, also called beaten rice or Rice Poha (found in Indian stores or Amazon). T
 - To sweeten the cookies, you can also use chopped dates instead of maple syrup
 - Store cookies in airtight container on counter for up to 3 days or store in fridge for up to 5 days. I think these cookies taste best straight out of the refrigerator. 
 - Inspired by the healthful double chocolate cookies recipe from 101 cookbooks