Healthy Breakfast Cookies with Blackberries and Fennel

Don't throw out those spotty bananas! Make these quick and healthy breakfast cookies instead!

You may recognize the base of these cookies as my recipe for 3 Ingredient Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies. Instead of normal toppings like raisins or dark chocolate, I went with a fancy (and prettier, if I do say so myself) version with gorgeous fresh blackberries, raw sunflower seeds, a smear of sunflower seed butter and a tiny sprinkling of fennel seeds.

What makes these cookies healthy?

I know, I know, "healthy" means different things to different people. So, let me spell out why I consider these healthy by my standards.

Low calorie

At 60 calories for a good sized 3 inch wide cookie, these are definitely low calorie breakfast cookies.

Low fat

The 1 gram of fat in this recipe comes from what the bananas, oats and sparse sprinkling of sunflower seeds naturally have in them. If you choose to smear nut butter under the berries, that would increase the fat.

Fiber

2 g of dietary fiber per cookie (and who doesn't need fiber?)

No refined sugar

No refined sugar, unless you'd like to spread them with some blackberry preserves instead of the sunflower seed butter. The sweetness comes from the ripe bananas and berries. Since sugar usually plays the role of making cookies sweet and crispy, you can expect this cookie to be mildly sweet, soft, chewy and somewhat dense. Kind of like a soft breakfast granola bar that's ready in less than 30 minutes, start to finish.

No egg

Eggs are used in most cookie recipes, but not this one! That also means you can eat the batter, guilt-free. hehe

No flour

There's no flour of any kind in these cookies. All the stick togetherness in these breakfast cookies comes from the oatmeal and the mashed banana. There's no need for flour and seeing as flour is higher in calories than a whole plant food like rolled oats, that's great for the waistline, too.

Gluten-free

If you use gluten-free rolled oats to make these healthy oatmeal cookies, they are gluten-free. Yay, for all my GF buddies out there! (you know who you are, hi guys!)

Vegan, Plant-based & McDougall Friendly

Kind of goes without saying, but these healthy breakfast cookies are 100% vegan, plant-based and are compliant with McDougall.

For McDougall's Maximum Weight Loss peeps, skip the nut butter and sunflower seeds, as they will not aid you in your weight loss goals, they are too high in fat. Instead, drop a small dollop of blackberry preserves/jam on the cookies once you've formed them, top with fresh halved blackberries and a few fennel seeds, then bake. Delicious as an every once in a while diversion from morning oatmeal and hashbrowns!

What's in these healthy breakfast cookies?

These cookies have:

1. ripe bananas
2. rolled oats (old fashioned or quick cooking oatmeal)
3. ground cinnamon
4. fresh blackberries
5. fennel seeds
6. sunflower seed butter (or any nut butter) - optional
7. blackberry preserves, jam or jelly - optional

That's it.

The ripe, spotty bananas offer sweetness and moisture. The oatmeal offers substance, nutrition and helps everything stick together. And, the ground cinnamon is for flavor! You can substitute the cinnamon for vanilla extract, if you'd like.

These simple, chewy cookies are great for breakfast or a guilt-free snack throughout the day. They keep, stored in the refrigerator, for 3-4 days, but do not have to stay chilled, so you can throw them in your lunch box. Or, in your purse for running errands.

Since these cookies have no sugar, you can feel good about feeding them to your kids.

You can make these cookies any size without adjusting the ingredients. You would only need to adjust the time in the oven. For smaller cookies, reduce the time by 3-5 minutes. For large cookies, increase by 2-3 minutes.

What's the process?

Mash the bananas

You'll want them be mashed very well, with only very small chunks remaining.

Add oats and cinnamon

Stir your rolled oats and cinnamon in well with a spoon.

Spoon and shape cookies

Drop spoonfuls of batter on a baking tray and then shape them with your hands. These cookies will not spread out, so make them into the shape, width and height you want from the beginning.

Take my advice and use a silicone mat or parchment paper to line your baking sheet, because these will stick without it.

Time for toppings!

Now's the time to get all fancy. Do you have your Nancy Silverton face on? Yes? Okay, let's go.

1. Dollop and gently spread a teaspoon sunflower seed butter (or blackberry preserves) on top of the cookie. The nut butter or preserves will spread out a little bit in the oven, so don't feel the need to manually spread it over the entire surface. This helps to stick the berries and seeds to the cookie.
2. Delicately place your halved blackberries on top. Three halves per cookie is so pretty, especially if you do two cut side up and one cut side down.
3. Drop a few sunflower seeds on top of each cookie
4. Lastly, sprinkle the fennel seeds on and throw these puppies in the oven!

If you're not feeling the blackberry/sunflower seed/fennel combo, head over to my basic 3 Ingredient Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies recipe for a whole list of topping ideas!

So, without further ado, don't throw out those spotty bananas, use them to make these beautiful and healthy breakfast cookies with blackberries and fennel.

If you make these, please let me know by leaving me a comment here, rating my recipe or tagging me on Instagram @veryveganish, using hashtag #veryveganish!