Laura's Amazing Pumpkin Cookies

This recipe is adapted from the Everyday Paleo blog's recipe called "Laura's Amazing Cookies".  As usual, I made my modifications.  Since I did not have maple syrup, I used xylitol.  That is a sugar alcohol that does not spike your insulin, and the dentist says that it does not promote bacterial growth in the mouth, so that's really good.  I had 1 ripe banana left, as well as 2 Granny Smith apples and threw those in.

My kids LOVED these cookies, so I hope my little Warriors in my Sunday School class (little 3 & 4 yr olds) love these as well, as well as the family I'm making dinner for tomorrow.  That's why I made such a huge batch, but I honestly recommend at least doing 2/3rds of this batch if you make it.  It doesn't take much longer to do 30 cookies as it would 15 cookies.

The cookies are moist, not overly sweet, with a little crunch.  These cookies are healthy, just like the other ones and won't send you on a sugar high!  Other things you could add to make them even more nutritious is ground flaxseed (for fiber) and whey protein (for more protein).  This cookie, compared to the Chocolate Chip Nutty Cookies, are pretty light tasting.  From my photos, they look similar, but they taste and feel very different.

Makes 45-50 cookies.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups almond meal
• 1.5 cups walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1.5 teaspoons baking powder (the kind that contains no starch)
• 3 Tablespoons cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 0.75 cup coconut milk
• 0.5 cup xylitol (or 9 Tablespoons maple syrup, Grade B)
• 2.5 cups cooked & mashed organic pumpkins (you can also use yams or butternut squash)
• 1 very ripe banana, mashed
• 2 Granny Smith apples, cored, chopped finely

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400° F.
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  If you don't have parchment paper, grease baking sheets with butter or spray olive oil.
• Combine almond meal, chopped walnuts, baking powder & cinnamon in a stainless steel bowl & mix.

Dry ingredients before mixing

• Combine eggs, coconut milk, xylitol in a large stainless steel bowl and mix well by hand.

If I used maple syrup instead of xylitol (this looks like sugar), it would look brownish

Wet ingredients mixed (though, technically xylitol isn't a wet ingredient)

• Gradually combine dry ingredients into wet ingredients, mixing until combined.

After mixing some of the dry ingredients before adding more

• Add pumpkin and bananas.  Mix until combined, there are no lumps.

Adding mashed pumpkin (I use Trader Joe's brand)

Adding banana (it was really ripe, so I didn't bother mashing before hand)

• Add apples.

I thought about adding apples at the last minute

Gives the cookie dough a chunkiness

• Drop by heaping Tablespoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets about 1" apart.  These cookies do spread some but not significantly.  The parchment paper can be reused, if they are not burned.  This saves time and cleanup.

I wasn't sure if these would spread & how much, so I didn't put them closer together.  

• Bake for 20 min.

They did spread some, but not as much as I thought.  Yay, perfect!

• Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
• Store in air tight container after cookies are cooled.

These are really good warm, but they are also good cooled.