Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cookies

After toothpaste, cookies are Baby Green's favourite treat. So, for his second birthday we made him these delicious cookies and served them up with some home-made mint ice-cream.  Mmmm. I have been experimenting with 'healthy' cookie recipes, and, well, they don't really exist. This recipe is as healthy as it gets, for now at least, and much better than the usual fare.

For these cookies I used coconut palm sugar, which is slightly healthier than regular sugar as it retains some of the nutrients of the palm sap during processing. While obviously not as beneficial as eating fresh fruit, cookies nevertheless have a place in our food pyramid. I also use wholewheat pastry flour (which can be found online), whole peanut butter (without added oil and salt), homemade nut milk, very little oil (cold pressed virgin rapeseed oil), and 100% cocoa powder. These cookies are easy to mix and take very little time to cook, so overall offer a gratifyingly minimal mix to mouth time.

Ingredients: (approx. 24 cookies, depending on size)

• 1/3 cup of peanut butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/3 cup of milk
• 2 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method:

• Preheat oven to 220C.
• Line one large or two smaller baking sheets/oven trays with baking parchment.
• In a large bowl whisk (you can use a manual or electric whisk / stand-up mixer) together the peanut butter, sugar, milk, oil and vanilla extract for a few minutes until well combined.
• In a separate bowl mix together the remaining dry ingredients; flour, oats, cocoa powder, salt and bicarb. 
• Slowly add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and fold gently until a well mixed dough is formed.
• This is where things get a little sticky: take out a small bowl and fill with water and grab a tablespoon. Dip the spoon in the water and scoop out a little ball of cookie dough, resisting the urge to eat it, and place on your lined tray. Repeat until you've used up the dough, then using the spoon or a fork, gently press the cookies into their more formal disk shapes. These cookies do not spread while cooking so you don't need to allow for generous spacing. 
• Place in the oven and set your timer. Depending on your oven, the cooking time is typically between 8 - 10 minutes. I took mine out at 9, they were a little soft, but hardened as they cooled. Just leave them on the cooking tray to cool, if you need the tray for a second round of baking then let them cool for a good few minutes on the tray and then slide onto a wire rack.
• Store in a air tight container for a week, or eat all at once, offer to others or hoard, up to you.