Description
Looking for a great addition to your holiday baking or cookie collection? This beautifully soft, chewy, and wholesome cookie is what cookie dreams are all about. These Healthy Vegan Cranberry Walnut Cookies are absolutely irresistible and the perfect treat for the holiday season or anytime of the year. Tart cranberries, toasty walnuts, old-fashioned oats baked in a chewy cookie will have the whole family gobbling them all up in a flash!
Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 ¼ cups almond flour, lightly packed
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup brown rice flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon flax meal
- ½ cup maple sugar *
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon *
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt *
Wet Ingredients:
- 4 Medjool dates *
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup unsalted almond butter, softened
- 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon unsweetened applesauce (3.9 oz.) *
- 1 teaspoon molasses
Other Ingredients:
- ¾ cup dried cranberries *
- ¾ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Avoid the lower oven rack placement.
- Line one (or two) baking sheets with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
- Place all the Dry Ingredients into a bowl, whisk to combine.
- Place the Medjool dates into the food process, chop the up. They will create a sticky lump, that is fine. Then place the almond butter, applesauce, molasses, and vanilla into the food processor with the chopped dates, and process until everything is combined. You will see pieces of chopped dates throughout the mixture that is fine.
- Add the wet remaining ingredients to the dry ingredients, stir well to combine. At first you won’t think the dough will form, keep stirring. It will come together.
- Add the cranberries and chopped walnuts, stir to mix in.
- Take about 2 Tablespoons-sized piece of cookie dough and roll it in your hands to form a ball, then place the ball onto the parchment paper/silicone mat lined cookie sheet. Try to keep the cookie size uniform. Continue until you have rolled all the dough into balls and placed the dough balls on the baking sheet(s). See notes about cookie dough tips.
- Then slightly flattened each ball to form a thick disk.Firm up the edges (if needed) to keep a cohesive well-formed disk. The cookies only spread a little bit while baking.
- Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets from bottom to top racks and vice-versa half-way through if using two cookie sheets. If using one large (14 x 20) cookie sheet, just use the center rack and there is no need to move the cookies around the oven.
- After 12 minutes, remove from the oven, allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet(s) undisturbed for 5 minutes to firm up, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
- Enjoy warm, soooo delicious!
Notes
*Medjool dates and Maple Sugar: We get tons of questions about sweetener substitutions. We totally get it. Some folks want to use all Medjool dates, while others want to use all maple syrup. We’ve tried these cookies using all Medjool dates, they turned out gummy. We also tried using all maple syrup, they just didn’t hold up. Honestly, the best sweetener for this cookie recipe is the combination of Medjool dates and maple sugar. Additionally, using date sugar is not recommended either as it just doesn’t have the same flavor and texture needed for this recipe. *** We also get lot questions about using coconut sugar, if your diet permits, you can substitute coconut sugar for the maple sugar. However, we have not tested with coconut sugar, many of our readers have let us know that coconut sugar works well as a substitute for maple sugar.
*Medjool dates: Test the dryness of the date. If using Medjool dates vs another dried date, you do not typically need to soak the dates as Medjool dates tend to be very soft. However, if you are using a different date, test the date by pinching it. If the date is very soft, gooey, and pliable, then you can just add them to the food processor to break them up. If the dates are drier and stiff, then you will need to cover them with boiling water for about 20 minutes to soften them up before adding the dates to the food processor.
*Cinnamon Spice: Some cinnamon spices are stronger than others. For example, some brands have a very strong cinnamon flavor whereas Penzeys has a beautiful, clean cinnamon flavor. I think individual personal preference really depends upon what you are most familiar with and what type of cinnamon spice you enjoy. If unsure, you can actually taste the batter to get a sense of the flavor for the end product and adjust as needed.
*Cookie Dough Tips for Success: The cookie dough is sticky, but it should form a ball easily. Tip: The rounder and smoother you make the cookie ball, the better cookie texture results. What we have found works well and creates a great cookie is the following: We create all the cookie balls, washing our hands between every 5 to 6 balls until we have created all the cookie balls. Then we wash our hands again and with slightly dampened hands, pick up each cookie ball and roll it again in our hands to create a very smooth round ball. The 2nd round of rolling is not required, but it does make a really nice cookie shape. Then slightly flatten each ball to form a thick disk about 5/8th inch thick. The cookies do spread somewhat, so do not put them too close together.
*Unsweetened Applesauce: We used the 3.9 oz. individual applesauce cups that you can find at most grocery store which equates to 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon.
*Dried Cranberries: Most dried cranberries are dried with sugar as they are extremely tart without it. Most WFPB doctors make allowances for dried fruit that have small amounts of sugar when used as a treat. There are some brands of dried cranberries that the only ingredient is cranberries. You typically can locate them online. They are very tart, and you can expect the same in the cookies.
*TIPS: Make sure you scrap out all the wet ingredients from the food processor. The food processor tends to splatter the wet ingredients all over the inside, so make sure you scrap all of that out with a rubber spatula.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Serving: Makes approximately 17 to 20 cookies.
*Storage: Use within 5 days. Freezes well.