Yep. You heard me right. QUINOA cookies! I can barely contain my excitement over these  delicious drops of heaven. Not only are they so delicious that I nearly burned my tongue eating as many as I could straight out of the oven, but they are also packed to the brim with tons of healthy ingredients – quinoa, flax seed, oat bran, greek yogurt, etc. – so much so that I have decided that eating a few of these cookies is basically like spending 20 minutes on the treadmill. You get my logic right???

I adapted this recipe from one I found in Bon Appetite and was at once so excited and shocked that I had never thought of this before. Quinoa in cookies! It is genius! I had high expectations and these cookies more than delivered. I mean any cookie you can get away with eating for breakfast is a winner in my book!

Ok lets get down to it. Start off combining your greek yogurt, oil, sugars, and honey in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. One of my favorite tricks is to measure your oil in the same spoon you will use to measure your honey with because then the honey slides out with ease-no scraping necessary!

Mix on medium high for about 3 minutes until smooth. Then add eggs and your two extracts, vanilla and almond. Almond extract just does not get enough credit. The almond extract makes these cookies. It adds such great, intense flavor that is unmistakable. Don’t get my wrong, I love a good vanilla extract as much as the next guy, but do me a favor… buy a bottle of almond extract. Have it in your kitchen. Use it! I promise you won’t regret it, especially in these cookies! Ok off my soapbox, onto the dry ingredients..

In a medium bowl combine, whole wheat flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and whisk together. Then add your oat bran, which can be found in most grocery stores (I got mine at trader joes). Oat bran is great because it has fiber, protein, and tons of vitamins and minerals.

I love oat bran almost as much as I love ground flax seed. This stuff is a nutritional powerhouse and I sneak it into as much as I can, smoothies, pancakes, granola, and of course, these cookies! Add 2 T and whisk to combine with the other dry ingredients.

With your mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet in about 3 batches, giving time to incorporate between each batch. When that is done, remove your bowl from the mixer and fold in the final 3 ingredients.

First, mix in 2/3 cup of whole dried cranberries and 1 cup old fashioned oats. Stir well to combine.

Then fold in 1 heaping cup of cooled quinoa until just combined. Refrigerate the dough for about an hour.

Spoon heaping tablespoons of dough onto a prepared cookie sheet lined with either parchment paper or one of my very favorite kitchen tools, a silpat! You can make these cookies pretty big because they don’t spread out much when you bake them. Plus they are light and fluffy and almost a bit cake like so the bigger the better! :)

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until just browned on top. These cookies are fantastic warm right out of the oven! Don’t say I didn’t warn you when you burn your tongue!

After I baked them I gave them to my husband and said “Here, try these cookies! See if you can guess what is in them!” All he said was, “oh my gosh I hope you made a whole bunch of these!” He loved them! You can’t taste the quinoa per se, but it adds great texture. These are almost like a cross between a muffin and a cookie, even more fuel to the totally appropriate to eat these for breakfast fire! Try these delicious, healthy, husband-approved cookies and let me know how it goes!

Enjoy!

Cranberry-Almond Quinoa Cookies

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetite

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups  whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
  • 2 tablespoons oat bran
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup non-fat greek yogurt
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 cup cooked quinoa, cooled
  • 1 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1 cup dried cranberries

Preparation

  • Preheat oven to 375°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Add in oat bran and flax seed. Whisk to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat greek yogurt, both sugars, oil, and honey in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and extracts; beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in flour mixture in three portions. Stir in oats, and cranberries. Fold in quinoa. Spoon dough in heaping tablespoons portions onto prepared cookie sheets.
    Bake for 15 minutes until tops of cookies are just golden brown.