This recipe for gluten-free and vegan cookies is the perfect healthy snack in this lent season, or anytime you feel like enjoying a healthy treat without losing any of the good flavors.
banana flavor can be overwhelmingly used as a “healthier” substitute in recipes. But in this recipe, the banana goes really well with the combination. these cookies are like banana bread in a bite but with a Lebanese twist to it.
If you are familiar with the middle eastern cuisine, you sure have heard before about caraway spice. known also in some region under the name of meridian fennel or Persian cumin, it is used in famous traditional dishes in Lebanon such as moughrabiye (مغربية) and meghle (مغلي) .
caraway is a very unique spice with an earthy slightly bitter flavor that is very similar to a combination of anise, fennel, and coriander flavors.
so to make this recipe stand out with the Lebanese flavor I used a combination of this spice with some cardamom and pistachio. and the result was amazing. it is definitely a cookie recipe that stands out from the crowd.
This Lebanese style Banana cookies are light, fluffy, sweet and delicious. Lately, with my pregnancy hormones and all, I have had this problem where I NEED something sweet afternoon to keep me going till dinner. and these cookies where the perfect Healthy solution to cure my afternoon sweet tooth.
so let’s get started with the recipe.
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CHECK OUT THE FULL VIDEO OF THIS RECIPE ON MY IG TV
Lebanese banana caraway cookies:
Ingredients
For the cookie dough:
- 2 large overripe bananas
- ¼ cup carob molasses see notes
- ¼ cup tahini
- 1 ½ cup almond flour
- 1 cup oat flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- Spices: 1 tbsp caraway powder;1 tbsp cinnamon powder; ½ tbsp cardamom powder
For the cookie coating:
- ¼ cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- ½ tbsp caraway see notes
- 3 tbsp pistachio chopped
Instructions
For the cookie dough:
- Step 01: mash the banana really well in a deep mixing bowl, then add the tahini and carob molasses and blend with a hand mixer until very smooth, set aside.
- Step 02: in a larger deep mixing bowl, mix the almon flour, oat flour, baking powder, salt and all the spices, until combined. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients mix and pour over the banana wet mixture.
- Step 03: mix until well combined and a wet sticky kind of dough id formed. Cover with some plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for 10 min.
- Step 04: while the dough is resting, in a flat plate mix all the coating ingredients except the pistachio and spread in the plate. In the meantime, preheat oven to 170 degrees C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Step 05: scoop out 1 tbsp of the dough and roll it between the palm of your hands to form a clean ball. And roll the ball gently into the coating spics and arrange on your baking tray. Continue this process until you have 12 pieces (half way through the dough). At this point add the pistachio and mix it with the remaining coating mix and continue scooping and rolling the remaining dough in the pistachio coating.
- Step 06: after finishing all the dough, gently press each ball with a mortar (or the palm of your hand if you can manage) to form a small cylinder shape.
- Step 07: bake for 10 to 12 min or until the edge is golden brown. be careful not to burn them especially on the bottoms.
- Step 08: remove from oven and let it cool on the pan for 5 min. then carefully loosen with a spatula and enjoy or let it cool completely before.
- Step 09: After completely cooled, store in an air-tight container at room temperature (or in the refrigerator) up to 3-4 days, or in the freezer up to 1 month.
Notes
- You can enjoy those cookies with some strawberries jam or any nut butter as a snack.
- Carob Molasses (دبس الخروب)is my must favorite natural sweetener of all time it like any other molasses but with a much deeper taste coming from the carob. It is made my soaking milled carob pods in water and reducing the extracted liquid till you have a thick syrup it is a long process still practiced by few towns over Lebanon. I f you cannot find it or don’t have it you can use normal molasses instead or any sweet syrup of your choice.
- The caraway powder (الكراوية)also known as caraway seed ground, caraway seed powder or caraway ground, is a spice used a lot in the Lebanese cuisine.it have a distinctive, strong and sweet taste. Famously used the most in preparing meghle pudding ” مغلي ” and chicken moughrabiye ” مغربية ” You can find it in the grocery store in the Lebanese or Arabic section.