Hi Friends!
Yep, you read that right. I put quinoa in cookies. And they’re delicious!
Let me back up. Last week on my Facebook Page (have you liked it?) I posted that I was going to try to make some tropical granola bars. I found some dried pineapple (with only a little added sugar) and some dried papaya (with no added sugar) at Earthfare and got to work.
And I failed. I made two batches. One with a lot of applesauce. Usually I use peanut butter as my binder but that didn’t seem very tropical (although I could have used the coconut peanut butter we got at Blend retreat…but I gave mine to Sarah since I’m not huge on coconut). Anyways, the applesauce made them chewy but they were too wet for my taste. Then I tried with less applesauce, more oil….and they didn’t stick together.
Not one to wallow in my kitchen failures- they happen all too often for that, I moved on the plan B. I’d been thinking about adding quinoa to some baked goods for a while now. In fact, I made some of this gluten-free banana bread, subbed 1/3 c agave for the sugar and added 1 cup cooked quinoa. They came out great! However I also added some peanut butter chips, which I’ve never used before, and I didn’t like those. They were too sweet or something, I dunno. Anyways, they kinda ruined the muffins for me…but you better believe i’ll be making them again (sans pb chips) next time I have some ripe bananas. Added protein, for the win!
Anyways, after a half success with the muffins, I decided to try adding quinoa to some cookies. And I just so happened to still have enough dried tropical fruit to make some sort of tropical cookie…with quinoa….and then I threw in some granola…and some almonds. So really it was kinda like I was making my tropical granola bars….just in cookie form…which worked out well for me 
These cookies are fluffy, chewy and crunchy…all at the same time!
Tropical Quinoa Cookies
Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 12 min
Keywords: bake snack dessert quinoa cookie
Ingredients (2 dozen)
- 1 1/3 c white whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 6 Tbsp butter, softened
- 1/4 c sugar
- 1/4 c honey
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 c cooked quinoa
- 1 c granola
- 1 c dried fruit (pineapple, papaya, cranberries)
- 1/2 c almonds, chopped
optional
- shredded coconut
Instructions
1. In a medium-sized bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Add the honey, eggs and vanilla and mix well.
3. Combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a small bowl and add to the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
4. By hand, stir in the quinoa, granola, dried fruit and almonds until just mixed.
5. Scoop onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
I used Love Grown Foods Cranberry Pecan granola which has some coconut in it. If you really like coconut, add some shredded coconut to the mix. If you don’t have granola, just use oats. If you don’t like pineapple or papaya, try mango or chopped up banana chips!
By my best estimation when I tried putting these into a recipe calculator, these have about 3 grams of protein and 2 grams of fiber per cookie, with about 9 grams of sugar (some coming naturally from the fruit) and about 130 calories. I had enough dough for 27 cookies.
Have you ever baked with quinoa?
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
