Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies (sugar free and gluten free)

Making healthy bars couldn't be easier! To make these oatmeal and chocolate cookies or bars that are totally sugar-free and full of energy, it's just a matter of taking a few ingredients, mixing in 2 minutes and baking... In 12 minutes you'll have them ready! And the truth is that they are delicious. You dare?

I usually make this recipe at home because children love them. Both for breakfast at home and for taking to school, they are a breakfast or snack that seems like a treat, a delicious sweet, but they are 100% guilt-free, because they do not contain any sugar, honey or other sweeteners: we use a A couple of bananas to sweeten and amalgamate, so they are a perfect option to fill us with energy and satisfy hunger.

Cookies or oatmeal bars?

I call them both cookies and bars, and I'll tell you why: I make them in various formats:

• You can make the mixture and shape them into a round and flat cookie with the help of two spoons. Then, you arrange them on a non-stick baking tray or with a bit of sulfurized film, and you get perfect cookies to snack on.
• You have the option of rolling out the entire dough on a tray (I always use Nordic Ware Naturals for this), in a smooth layer a few inches high. You bake and, after baking, you make some vertical cuts to obtain bars . Ideals!
• Square bites: today's case is somewhere between a cookie and a bar. I have used the new Le Creuset pan for square muffins and brownies , and the truth is that I loved this option. I've got thick, square bites of oatmeal that are more generous than a single biscuit, in a most pleasant square bite to eat. If you use this mold, you can fill the cavities more or less to their height, so you can make square cookies if you fill them a little, or a generous bar-type bite if you fill them as I have done.

Le Creuset non-stick pan for muffins, brownies, sobaos and tartlets

Ingredients

• 300 g oat flakes
• 2 ripe plantains (large, or 3 small)
• 1 L egg (lightly beaten)
• 2 tbsp mild olive oil
• 3 tbsp coconut oil or hazelnut oil
• 3 generous tablespoons shredded coconut (if you don't like coconut, leave it out)
• Chocolate chips (2 handfuls)
• A teaspoon of cinnamon (optional, although I always add it)

Preparation

1. In a large bowl, add the peeled and coarsely chopped bananas.
2. Add to the bowl the rest of the ingredients except the chocolate chips (that is, the oats, the coconut, the olive oil and the coconut or hazelnut oil, the beaten egg and the cinnamon).
3. With the help of a fork or a potato masher , go crushing the banana while you mix it with the rest of the ingredients. You will see that little by little the oats (which are dry from the start) are impregnated with the oils, egg and banana. You must go on mixing and mashing until everything is integrated, the banana is undone and the oats are all "wet", they are no longer dry. You will see that it is a quick process, in 2 minutes you will have it ready.
4. Add the chocolate chips and mix with a fork or now with the help of a spatula. You only want to distribute the chocolate throughout the mixture, so you must mix and "squash" the mass with the spatula to go into the chocolate and distribute it throughout the mixture.
5. Spray some release spray on the Le Creuset nonstick pan .
6. With the help of a spatula, fill the cavities of the mold. With the amount obtained, it should give you to fill all the cavities to a height of 3/4 or completely. The bars do not contain yeast nor will they rise in the oven, so however thick you make them they will now come out of it.
7. Using a silicone spatula, press the dough into each cavity to make it compact.
8. Bake at half height of the oven, in a preheated oven at 200 ºC, for approximately 12 minutes (if you make them thick, if you make them thinner it will be a little less even). Remove when you see the golden oats.
9. Let them cool and unmold. You can invert the mold (you will see that they come out as if nothing) or help yourself with a wooden spatula (do not use anything metallic, you do not want to damage the non-stick).
10. When serving, you can enjoy them as is, or you can accompany them with melted chocolate, salted caramel, dulce de leche... Each combination is a winner and different! Do it to your liking (or let each one accompany it to their liking).
    In my case, I have used salted caramel, the one from Tiptree we love at home.

How to accompany your oatmeal cookies?

Here you have several options, I leave you the ones you like the most at home:

• Served without anything, having the flavor of banana, coconut and especially chocolate, they are already very tasty.
• You can melt dark chocolate and pour it on top of the cookies, and let it cool to serve with the hard chocolate.
• Apply melted chocolate but on the base of the cookies (bathe them up to half their height once unmolded), and let cool. Being square, they are also very beautiful in two colors.
• Let white chocolate drip on top of the cookies, and then repeat but with dulce de leche. Let cool or serve still liquid... They are delicious and beautiful!
• Bring hazelnut cream, dulce de leche or salted caramel to the table, and let each one be served at the moment, crowning the bars to your liking.

Grades:

• When you are mixing the ingredients, if you see that the oats need it, you can add a little more oil... but never overdo it, very little is enough and you don't want the bars to be oily. You can also add a little more egg, if not, or a little more banana (in many cases it will depend on the size of the bananas that you have added, whether there is enough to impregnate and amalgamate all the ingredients or whether you require a little more, but you will see it quickly when you do it and it is a recipe that with a little more or less turns out well anyway. Do it without fear!
• If you want to make snacks or thin cookies, you can fill the mold a little and bake two times.

Grades