Flourless Fruity Cookies

These are great for those who love a lighter fruitful cookie. Great for breakfast on the go, or add some ice cream and make it a dessert!

3 ripe bananas
1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup mixed dried fruit (any kind/mixture you like, chopped and pitted if necessary)
*some ideas: dried apricots, dates, raisins, dried cranberries, dried apples
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup oil (grapeseed, vegetable or canola)
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Mash bananas in a large bowl
2. Stir in the remaining ingredients
3. Mix well and allow to sit for 10 minutes
4. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet
5. Bake in a pre-heated 350 F oven for 20-25 minutes or lightly brown

A Healthy Cookie?

Maybe cookies are not the most slimming snack around, but here are 5 ingredient substitutions that I use to make them a little healthier.

1. Grapeseed oil in place of Vegetable oil
2. Diced or small dried fruit (apricots, dates, raisins) in place of candy
3. Dark chocolate 70% cocoa content or higher in place of milk/white chocolate
4. Organic cane sugar (I found it at my local bulk food store) instead of regular granulated sugar
5. Ground quick cooking oats in place of flour (Depending on my experience with the recipe, I will replace 1/4 to all of the flour that a recipe calls for)

I hope that helps to make your cookie cravings a little more enjoyable!

My favorite cookies to make are......

Shortbread cookies!
They are easy to make and great for decorating. Most people I know make sugar cookies, but I prefer shortbread. They are softer and tastier.

Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
1 cup of icing sugar
1 cup of cornstarch
1.5 cups of softened butter

• Mix all ingredients together with a pastry blender, form into a ball and refrigerate for 1 hour. It is not necessary to refrigerate the dough, but it makes it easier to handle if the cookies are going to be cut out with cookie cutters.


• Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a floured surface.


• Cut out desired cookie shapes.


• Use a lifter to lift each cookie onto an ungreased baking sheet.


• Re-roll scraps and cut out more shapes.

Bake cookies at 325 F for 18-20 minutes depending on size of cookies (they are ready when the edges are golden)
Let cookies cool before removing them from cookie sheet.

Now it's time to decorate the cookies! There are many ways to decorate the cookies..............

You can put sprinkles on them, but this needs to be done before they are put in the oven to be baked.

They can be decorated with icing. Royal icing works well because it hardens and then the cookies can be stacked.

They can be partially or fully dipped in chocolate and then topped with coconut flakes, slivered almonds, sprinkles and anything else you prefer.

Easter Cookies

My friend is hosting Easter at her place this year so

we baked these shortbread cookies for one of the

desserts. We decorated them with royal icing.

Valentine's Day Cookies

These Valentine's Day cookies were freshly baked and hand decorated by a

guest who gave them to my sister for her birthday. Her

birthday is close to Valentine's Day so that's why most of

them are hearts. There were also shoe, purse and butterfly

shaped cookies.