Healthy Oatmeal Cookies

Delicious Healthy Oatmeal Cookies which are sugar-free! This recipe uses maple syrup as a natural sweetener. These oatmeal cookies are perfect for school lunchboxes and as a healthy snack. Recipe with step-by-step photos.

Healthy Cookie Recipe

I am always on the lookout for healthy options for my childrens’ lunch boxes, and when I came across this recipe for oatmeal cookies which were sugar-free, I was sold.

These healthy oatmeal cookies are heady with coconut, and I love that you can quickly make them in the food processor.

Sugar-Free Cookies

I must admit that I often end up packing the same food in my childrens’ lunch boxes, over and over again. I seem to have a short list of “healthy kids food” which I have on constant rotation.

But these sugar-free cookies are something which I can change slightly each time by adding nuts or dried fruits (or chocolate!), and I know that our kids just love them. In fact, I often have to pack extra cookies for them to share with their classmates!

Sugar-Free Diet

We don’t binge on cakes and sugar-loaded desserts every day (contrary to what people think when they look at my blog!); these are food items which we reserve for special occasions or when we might be entertaining guests.

I would even go so far as to say that our children only get to eat sweets and chips when they attend birthday parties; dessert in our home is often a serve of natural yoghurt, some fruit, or maybe even a square of chocolate if we are feeling generous!

Sugar is found not only in “sugary foods” like cakes and sweets, but it is also naturally occurring in foods such as fruit, dairy and carbohydrates which the body converts into sugar.

I try to eliminate or reduce sugar wherever possible, and especially in food that we eat on a day-to-day basis. For birthdays and celebrations, I’m happy to tuck into a “real” chocolate cake with all of the trimmings, but the food that we eat everyday should be much more nutritionally balanced.

Maple Syrup as a Replacement for Sugar

Maple syrup is made from the sap of maple trees which has been boiled and reduced to produce a golden, sticky liquid.

Although maple syrup contains fructose, or fruit sugar, it has higher nutritional value than regular cane sugar.

Maple syrup also has a lower glycemic index than cane sugar (whether white or brown), which means that it will not cause your blood sugar to spike like regular sugar can.

Hence, maple syrup can be a healthy alternative to regular sugar in many baking recipes.

Dairy-Free Cookies

These healthy oatmeal cookies can also be adapted to be dairy-free by substituting the cow’s milk for almond milk or oat milk.

I have used all different types of milk in this recipe, and they all work well.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

More often than not, I make these oatmeal cookies plain. But on occasions when I want to make them more of a treat, I will add about 1/3 cup of mini dark chocolate chips. I can’t tell you how fast these cookies disappear!

How to Make Healthy Oatmeal Cookies

Step 1

Place all of the ingredients into a food processor, and blitz until the ingredients are well-combined.

Step 2

Scoop about 1 tablespoon of the cookie mixture and roll it into a ball before placing onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.

I recommend using a small ice-cream scoop with 15 ml (1 tablespoon) capacity as the cookie mixture can be quite sticky, but also so each cookie is roughly the same size.

Step 3

Place about 1 tablespoon of flour onto a small plate, dip a fork into the flour, and use the fork to gently flatten each ball of dough.

Sprinkle each cookie with extra dessicated coconut, and then bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden.

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