Vegan cookies, gluten-free cookies, wheat-free cookies… healthy cookie recipes are easy to make if you’re willing to experiment with some quality alternative ingredients. Agave nectar is the perfect sweetener for these baked treats. Not only for its superiority over refined sugars, but also for its moisture-retaining qualities.

Healthy cookie recipes can be made without sugar, butter, eggs, or milk!

Let’s start with a solid foundation of ground walnuts. We can use whatever works best for our personal preferences and budget. Pecans tend to be a bit more expensive than almonds and hazelnuts (hazelnuts), the nuts are often on sale or available at a cheaper regular price. Always buy in bulk, and halves and pieces are fine. It is not necessary to get whole nuts as we crush them anyway.

A good cookie recipe should include some fat. Since we want to keep this healthy, nutritious, and vegan-friendly, let’s ditch the butter and choose almond, cashew, or peanut butter instead, or a combination of both. If you don’t like the taste or price of nut butters, substitute organic canola oil.

Great, but what about the flour if we want to make gluten-free cookies? The answer is: organic brown rice flour! It works wonders and is much healthier than white flour.

Next up: what sweetener? As stated above, agave nectar is a great sweetener for baked goods. Similar to honey, it helps retain moisture in cookies and cakes. It also mixes quickly and easily with all the other ingredients for a well-blended batter.

To add flavor to this basic healthy cookie mix, use a little vanilla or almond extract, ground cinnamon, crushed anise seeds, and a pinch of salt, of course.

And to add even more nutritional value, consider lightly roasted rolled oats, raisins, sesame seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. My God… what to do with all that energy?

why is this a Easy Healthy Cookies Recipe for Vegan Cookies and Gluten Free Cookies

We really don’t need a recipe for these amazing nutrition morsels. It all depends on what we have on hand, or what we like to eat, or what we want to buy. Here is a simple recipe template that uses the ingredients discussed above:

• 4 cups of ground walnuts
• 1 cup of nut butter or 1/2 cup of organic canola oil
• 1 cup organic brown rice flour
• 3/4 cups agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla or almond extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon crushed anise seeds, cardamom, or other spices
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Optional: 1/2 cup raisins or toasted oatmeal or seeds

The amounts of individual ingredients don’t really matter that much. The template is only a general guide.
Our goal is to mix a dough that holds its shape when divided into cookie-sized balls. We may need to add a little water if the mixture is too dry and crumbly. Or, we may need to add more brown rice flour to a sloppy, wet dough.

Here’s the best part: Since we’re not using raw eggs, we can taste our cookie dough before we bake it! Add more agave nectar if you like it sweeter, more spices or seeds, until you’re happy!

Important points for the baking process!

• Place 2-inch balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and flatten slightly with a fork (similar to making peanut butter cookies, dip fork in cold water before pressing into cookie pieces)
• Use a fairly low oven temperature: 8-10 minutes at 300-325 degrees; Agave nectar browns a bit quicker than sugar, so keep an eye on your cookies and don’t let them get too dark on the bottom!
• Remember, there are no raw eggs in our dough; we won’t have to bake it all the way through. A slightly “rare” interior is wonderful!

So, be adventurous and experiment with a variety of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, spices, and whatever you like in your gourmet vegan cookie. As long as you don’t burn them black, they will always be good to eat. And because they’re so healthy and nutritious, they’ll be good for you, too!