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–
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Very interesting!! I admire how adventurous you are in the kitchen! You just keep trying and trying until you have yourself a successful dish! That is awesome! And the cookies look beautiful!
I’m still making your cherry and oat no-bake bars/cookies, by the way. I made another batch the other day and added tahini to them. YUM!!
These sound great too, but I just can’t do all the dried food unfortunately. MY stomach dislikes me when I eat a lot. I’m going to Earthfare on Friday though, so I can’t wait to search for more fun ingredients!!
you added tahini?! how interesting!!!!
That’s awesome that you don’t let a failed attempt get you down and you just keep brainstorming. A major kitchen problem of mine is giving up waaaay too fast haha.
The cookies look delicioso!
girl, i have way to many failures to let them get me down 🙂
LOVE things with dried tropical fruit and coconut. Yum!
And for the record – coconut should never be optional. 😉
No I have not baked with quinoa! Once again, your creativity astounds me. I may try this with prunes or apricots…
oh yum! that would be delish!
These look great! I’ve never thought of putting quinoa in a cookie (or any other baked good) before.
it’s great! so versatile!
coconut and tropical fruit are amazing… put them in cookies? you’re freakin genius, linz!
awww you’re too kind 🙂
I’m very new to baking so I’ve had a number of failed attempts at recipes I’ve tried to create lol
These look great!
Those cookies look delicious, Lindsay! I need to try them!
yes! please do 🙂
I’ve had so many granola bar failures too! It can be so tricky to get them to stick together! 😛 I’m glad these cookies worked out though because they look amazing!
Can’t wait to try this! I love all your recipes 🙂
thank you so much 🙂
Holy moly those look good. And seeing as I’ll be at the beach next week I may just have to make these! 🙂
yes! how perfect!
Three words: om nom nom. 🙂
Loving all of your quinoa recipes!! This looks delicious. I haven’t tried baking with quinoa before but now I will.
yay!!! can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Those sound so interesting, and tasty!! I’ve never cooked with quinoa. Now I’m really intrigued haha.
give it a try!!!
SO clever! Love the idea and I’m sure they were absolutely delicious!
Yes! I made quinoa cookies recently (http://chipchiphooray.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/healthy-quinoa-breakfast-cookies-and-my-first-giveaway/) and I looooved them. Mine were a little less like a traditional cookie than yours (no flour!), but I was a huge fan of them at breakfast-time…or for dessert…or any time, really. 🙂
oooh checking out yours now!
I must say, girl, this sounds like a delicious summer recipe. Can’t wait to try this!
awesome 🙂 enjoy!!
yum! i’ve made quinoa pancakes before and they were great, so i bet these were too.
ooh those are next on my list!
Very cool, I love that you thought to bake with quinoa! I’ve never tried it!
you could make something delicious i’m sure!
Love this recipe! Going to try these this weekend! Quinoa is so versitile!
yay! let me know what you think!!
they look pretty good…I’m interested to try something like this 🙂
give them a whirl!
I’ve been wanting to make cookies with quinoa for a while now…you have completely and utterly inspired me.
get on it girl! can’t wait to see yours 🙂
I have never baked with quinoa! these look so good and I may have to venture out and try to make them too 🙂
give it a try girl!
I love your quinoa baking enthusiasm. You had a mission and you completed it with screaming success. Looks so good! I wonder what else quinoa can help create in the baking world.
so much potential!!!!
YES! Quinoa cookies are the best! [As are “blends” who give me extra peanut butter. :)]
Looks delicious! Any reason you used both sugar and honey in this recipe? Between the granola and the dried fruit, do you think I could get away with excluding both sweeteners here?
i wasn’t trying to make them particularly health so i guess that’s why. i think you could definitely eliminate one, if not both.
Yum! These look really healthy, but really good!
I just baked with it for the first time the other day! Can’t wait to tweak my recipe and post it!
oooh i can’t wait to see it!
What a great recipe! I don’t experiment too much with quinoa, but might need to with the sounds of these. I love baking with teff flour, so good.
I have never baked with quinoa but I might have to try it now!
I made some vegan quinoa breakfast cookies earlier this year and they were AWESOME. I really loved the texture and nuttiness that the quinoa gave them…not to mention that the added protein really helped me justify eating them for breakfast 😉 I really like the tropical fruit in yours! Delish.
I’ve never baked with quinoa, but these look pretty darn amazing so I might just have to! I’m a sucker for cookies though – especially healthified ones. 🙂