paleo

The BEST Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies {Gluten-Free, Paleo & Grain-Free Option}

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Oat PB ChocChip Stack

These yummy peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies will make you sing with happiness, and don’t stop as just one-their secretly healthy!

I have many favorite foods- but chocolate chip cookies is definitely near or at the top of the list depending on the day. When I’m craving something sweet and chocolatey, but don’t want to ruin a day of eating super healthy, I bake up some of these oat-based peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. They do not contain any wheat-based flour- just oat flour (high in fiber!), so they are gluten free. I also used coconut sugar instead of refined sugar and here is why:

“Compared with table and brown sugars, coconut sugar has impressive amounts of nutrients like zinc and iron as well as antioxidants. Coconut sugar also contains good amounts of inulin, a type of dietary fiber you don’t digest in your upper gastrointestinal tract. Instead, inulin acts as a prebiotic, feeding your intestinal bifidobacteria (a probiotic).” (huffingtonpost.com)

I baked these cookies the other day, the recipe makes 12-14 cookies, and by the same time the following day they were gone. Really, I’m not joking!… And I only had 3, maybe 4. My husband really took a liking to these chocolatey peanut butter cookies and since they are healthy he obviously wasn’t bashful about having a few extra here and there. He even had one for breakfast!

Oat PB ChocChip Closeup2

Oat PB ChocChip Overhead

The BEST Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies- no flour, no butter!

  • 3/4 cups of old fashioned oats (measured before blending into a flour, OR for paleo SUB almond flour)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter (for paleo sub almond butter)
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil (softened)
  • 4 tablespoons coconut sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4-1/3 cup chocolate chips
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a bowl mix/cream the egg with the coconut sugar, vanilla, softened coconut oil, and peanut butter.
  3. In a larger bowl mix the dry ingredients- oat flour (blend your oats in a high speed blender until a flour consistency is reached), salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
  4. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together thoroughly. The batter will be fairly wet and sticky.
  5. Add in the chocolate chips and refrigerate the batter for 10 minutes to make it easier to work with.
  6. (You can skip this step, it’s just a messier operation if you skip it)
  7. Form 1″ balls and place on greased cookie sheet (I used coconut oil to grease the sheet).
  8. Bake at 350 degree F for about 8-10 minutes or until slightly golden.
  9. Allow to cool a few minutes before removing.

 

 

Apple Pie Fruit & Nut Bars

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Apple Pie KIND Bars 2

 

The yummiest KIND* bar is hands down the Apple Pie flavor, although they are all excellent. We discovered these gems at a coffee shop in Austin, and for some reason it was the only place that sold this amazing flavor. Having moved recently, I went out to search for the delectable bars. I made my way to Whole Foods and scoped out the enormously large selection of healthy bars, hoping to spot the rare flavor, mouth watering with anticipation, but was extremely disappointed to see there was no Apple Pie flavor! I instead decided to settle on the blueberry one, and left feeling let defeated and utterly disappointed.

I returned home and decided I had to find a way to reproduce these gooey apple pie bars so we could grab them whenever the impulse sprung. I knew the challenge would be creating a sweet sticky coating that would hold the bar together with simple healthy ingredients. Then it came to me- honey coconut caramel! I whipped it up, and it’s pretty close to the real deal and of course good for you too!

(*KIND is a registered trademark of Kind LLC, New York, NY)

Apple Pie KIND Bar Step 1a Apple Pie Kind Bars

Apple Pie KIND Bars

Apple Pie KIND Bars

  • 1 cup roughly chopped Almonds (raw, unsalted)
  • 1 cup roughly chopped Pecans (raw, unsalted)
  • 1 cup Dried Apples (chopped)
  • ½ cup Raisins (chopped)
  • 1 tablespoon Chia seeds
  • 1 teaspoon Cinnamon (more if you like!)
  • ½ teaspoon Himalayan Salt (or celtic sea salt)
  • 1 cup Honey
  • ⅔ cup full fat Coconut Milk
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  1. Mix the nuts, chia, dried fruit, cinnamon and salt in a bowl.
  2. In a saucepan mix the honey, coconut milk, and vanilla. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.
  3. The mixture will begin to froth, keep stirring, and remove from heat once it reaches the “ hard ball stage” between 250-266 degrees.
  4. If you do not have a candy thermometer, you can drop a small spoonful of the mixture into a bowl of cold water, and then see if you can form a fairly firm ball with the mixture with your fingers. It should hold together once formed.
  5. Once it’s reached this stage, remove from the stove and pour over nut mixture.
  6. Working quickly stir and evenly coat the mixture then pour into a greased pan.
  7. Using a greased spatula or your hands to firmly pack down the mixture into the pan.
  8. Place into the refrigerator to cool for 5-10 min then remove and cut into bars.
  9. The bars can now be stored in the fridge or freezer.