Can you get someone fired by giving them cookies?
I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that because I certainly thought I did last fall!
In October, after perfecting the recipe for my toffee coffee cookies, I packed up a few in a little bag to hand to the funny college-aged cashier with dreadlocks at Trader Joe’s. When I failed to see him on every one of my bi-weekly shopping trips after that day, I basically blamed myself for him losing his job.
A few months later, on a rainy Saturday morning in February, I sprinted through the downpour into the store, picked up my usual bananas, spinach, and eggs, and hopped into the shortest line. As I waited for the girl to finish packing up the previous patron’s bags, I glanced towards the employee station—and there he was! Smiles, positivity, dreadlocks, and all.
Whew—he just changed his shift!
Fast forward to last week, a random Wednesday in July, and I happened to pick his line again. As I handed over my 8 bananas (I eat one every morning with breakfast, so they disappear faster than my dark chocolate stash!), he asked if I planned on baking banana bread.
“I’m not sure yet,” I replied. “But I’m baking cookies this afternoon!”
“Will you bring me some?”
“I already did!”
“I remember—and they were the BEST cookies ever!” He turned to the shopper ahead of me and explained, “She’s the nicest person ever! I just asked if she’d bring me cookies one time, and she showed up, like, 40 minutes later with the best cookies!”
He continued, looking back at me, “I get off work at 6, so… If I gave you my address, would you mind dropping them off? I live just around the corner!”
Laughingly, I agreed. But… I kind of forgot to mention that I needed to photograph them first. Sometimes people don’t quite understand the whole “food blog” thing.
“Wait, so you bake… And take pictures… Of everything? As your job?” is the typical response I get.
Sometimes it’s just easier to say that I bake for a living!
But anyway, back to the story… These Healthy Raspberry Oatmeal Cookies were the ones that I baked! Incredibly soft and chewy, with just the slightest hint of spice, these treats taste like the epitome of summer from their fresh juicy berries and light floral notes. With their sweet flavors, nobody will be able to tell they’re low fat, clean eating, and less than 100 calories each. (Yes, they’re made with NO butter, refined flour or refined sugar!)
For the cookie dough base, I started with the most popular recipe on my blog: my blueberry oatmeal cookies. Hundreds of readers have baked them, and they commented that not only were those the softest and chewiest cookies they’ve ever made, but their families and friends couldn’t tell they were healthy. That’s basically the biggest compliment a healthy baking blogger could ever ask for!
To make sure your cookies turn out extremely soft and chewy, you must measure both the whole wheat flour and old-fashioned oats correctly. Lightly spoon each into the measuring cups, and level with a knife. Do NOT stick the measuring cup into the container and scoop them out. You’ll end up with 1.5 times as much, which will dry out your cookies and leave them crumbly. (For a more detailed explanation, check out my Baking Basics!)
Chilling is mandatory. Initially, the dough will be very sticky, almost like thick muffin batter. Chilling allows the oats to absorb some of the liquids and thicken up the dough. If you forget to chill, you’ll end up with one big cookie blob, so learn from my mistake and pop the bowl in the fridge!
When dividing up the cookie dough to place on the baking sheet, try to drop them into rounded scoops, about as tall as they are wide. The raspberries contain a fair amount of water, which they release while baking, so the cookies spread a lot. Shaping the dough into taller mounds helps minimize the spread (so that don’t form that dreaded cookie blob!).
Because we’re using honey, which crystallizes at a lower temperature than granulated or brown sugar, we’ll bake these cookies lower and slower than your typical recipes: 325°F for 13-15 minutes. Do not over-bake them!
When you remove the cookies from the oven, they should still look and feel underdone—that’s good! We’ll let them cool for at least 15 minutes on the warm baking sheet, which allows the centers to finishing cooking through without the outsides turning crisp and crunchy. They’ll stay soft for an entire week, if they last that long!
(And yes, I did double-check. It was pure torture leaving the container on the counter for the full seven days!)
Bright and fruity, these Healthy Raspberry Oatmeal Cookies require some serious willpower not to devour the entire batch! Those cute pink freckles, with the oaty flecks peeking through, are just too tempting—and their extra soft, chewy texture makes them even more addictive!
The next day, after finishing their photo shoot, I dropped off a plate of these cookies at the cashier’s house with his roommate. Although he wasn’t home, hopefully I’ll hear about them on my next TJ’s visit!
And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! ?) I’d love to see your cookies and feature them in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| Healthy Raspberry Oatmeal Cookies | | Print |
- 1 cup (100g) instant oats (measured like this and gluten-free if necessary)
- ¾ cup (90g) whole wheat or gluten-free* flour (measured correctly)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup (120mL) honey
- 6 tbsp (53g) fresh raspberries, diced
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the honey until thoroughly incorporated. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in the raspberries. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. (If chilling longer, cover with plastic wrap, ensuring it touches the entire surface of the cookie dough.)
- Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.
- Drop the cookie dough into 15 rounded scoops on the baking sheet. (If chilled longer than 1.5 hours, flatten slightly.) Bake at 325°F for 13-15 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for at least 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
For a gluten-free version, use gluten-free instant oats and the following gluten-free flour blend: ½ cup (60g) millet flour, 2 tablespoons (15g) tapioca flour, 2 tablespoons (17g) brown rice flour, and ½ teaspoon xanthan gum.
To make your own instant oats, pulse 1 cup of old-fashioned oats in a food processor 5-8 times.
Melted unsalted butter or melted margarine may be substituted for the coconut oil. Regardless of which is used, be sure that the egg is at room temperature before whisking it in. A cold egg added straight from the fridge would rapidly cool the fat source, resulting in small blobs of semi-solid coconut oil or butter.
If the cookies are still really flimsy after cooling on the baking sheet for 15 minutes and threaten to break apart, let them cool completely on the baking sheet. That won’t let them crisp up too much, and they’ll still stay soft for an entire week!
For more tips and answers to all other questions, including substitutions, see my Oatmeal Cookie FAQ page.
{clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
Can I substitute black rasberries instead of red ones AND can I use applesauce (same amount) instead of butter or coconut oil?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Reggie! Yes, you can substitute blackberries for the raspberries. That’s a fun idea! However, I don’t recommend substituting applesauce for the butter / coconut oil. The cookies turn out cakey and a bit gummy, instead of soft and chewy. I’d love to hear what you think if you try making them! 🙂
Hi, I love your recipe and currently the mix is chilling in the fridge :). What will happen if I add about 15grams of extra fruit? Also can I add extra chopped nuts/seeds? Thank you :).
Just to add, instead of baking the mix as cookies, could I make it as a tray bake like a flapjack and then slice it up once baked and cooled? Thanks again :)!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe April! Yes, you can definitely add chopped nuts or seeds. I don’t recommend adding too much extra fruit (unless it’s dried fruit!) because the raspberries add lots of extra moisture to the cookie dough, which negatively impacts their texture. The cookies turn out really wet, unless you bake them longer… And baking them longer often makes them cakey or muffin-like. It’s a delicate balance! 😉 You can definitely bake them in a square baking pan and slice them into bars once they’ve cooled, if you prefer! I’ve done that before when I’m feeling lazy and don’t feel like shaping the individual cookies. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of these cookies!
Hi Amy, thank you for your reply :)! Well…I didn’t see your reply till today, so I shaped them into cookie shapes and baked them and left them on the tray for the 15 minutes, then cooled them but they all turned out very sticky/wet/crumbley. My lower fat and sugar version ones actually turned out better than the ones that I made near enough to a tee following your recipe (I used mashed banana in place of the oil/butter and a skinny natural vanilla syrup instead of honey – I also added chopped almonds). I did add a small amount of chopped nuts/seeds and used diced strawberries and cherries instead of raspberries for the ‘normal recipe cookies’ but maybe I would’ve been better off making them as a whole bake, rather than the cookies :’). Your recipe is really good but sadly didn’t work out very successfully for me :). I shall tag you in my instagram post :)!
It’s my pleasure, April! I’m always happy to help. As I previously mentioned, that extra fruit probably made your original batch so sticky and wet. I think you’ll have better luck if you use no more than the amount of fruit that I call for in the recipe, if you decide to make the recipe exactly as written again. I love hearing about your fun recipe modifications though — it’s always fun to hear what tweaks work! What’s the exact natural vanilla syrup that you used? How much of it did you use? And how much of the mashed banana as well?
Hi Amy :). It defintely will have been the extra fruit that made the mixture a little wet, also I think I’ll add a little less syrup into the cookies next time or maybe a tiny bit more of the oats…Just a pinch :P. Thank you :)! I used 120ml of the syrup and 28g to 30g of banana (I usually use banana as a substitute for butter as I rarely ever have apple sauce to hand). You should give it a go. I find that honey or golden syrup does have quite an overpowering taste in baking…although honey in a greek orange cake is lovely as it really complements the orange and soaks into the semolina :).
I forgot to say that I popped the cookies in the freezer and they chilled to the perfect temperature and texture and didn’t freeze :). Much preferred eating one for breakfast straight from the freezer than from the fridge. Maybe because of the banana and syrup they just turned out better that way also just a note to say that I found that the banana hadn’t changed the colour of the cookie in any sort of way, as they do sometimes in other bakes (usually turns my banana bakes a little purpley as the banana continues to ripen) :).
Thank you so much for sharing all of your experiences April! That’s wonderful that they tasted delicious straight from the freezer. Such a fun idea! 🙂