Pumpkin, Peanut Butter & Chia Seed Cookies. Gluten free. Vegan. Keto.

Pumpkin, Peanut Butter & Chia Seed Cookies

Pumpkin, Peanut Butter & Chia Seed Cookies

THESE GLUTEN FREE, VEGAN PUMPKIN, PEANUT BUTTER & CHIA SEED COOKIES ARE A EASY WAY TO ADD NUTRITION INTO YOUR DAY!

These are lovely, soft & chewy vegan peanut butter cookies are easy to make and are nom nom! These cookies are gluten free, egg-free and dairy-free.

As we are still in C-19 lockdown, I have used the past couple of weeks to build multiple websites and work through the intricacies of website analytics. But this morning I decided it was time to find the kitchen again.

Using Vegetables in Sweet Treats

As you know, we make our CRAVE Chocolate Brownies out of kumara, which probably sounds unusual but as we've discovered kumara, like many vegetables, makes an ideal ingredient for sweet treats. Vegetables help produce a moister cake by replacing some of the flour, and lets us reduce or eliminate butter and oils. The same with some pureed fruits; we use stewed apple in our vegan gluten-free chocolate cake.

Pumpkin, Peanut Butter & Chia Seed Cookies

This is a super simple recipe. These cookies are gluten-free, refined-sugar free and vegan.

Pumpkin which is loaded with Vitamin A, as well as beta carotene, reduces to a lovely silky texture when pureed. Peanut Butter which is relatively low in carbohydrate contains good amounts of fats and protein, is delightful no matter which we it is eaten, also has a lovely smooth texture. I used Chia Seeds as a vegan egg substitute to help bind the mixture, but apart from this quality, Chia Seeds are packed full of omega-3 fatty acids.

Ingredients

Ingredients for Pumpkin, Peanut Butter & Chia Seed Cookies

  • 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1 chia egg (mix 1 tbsp chia seeds with 2 1/2 tbsp water)
  • 1/3 cup coconut sugar
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger & allspice)
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/3 cup rice flour (or substitute another gluten-free flour)
  • extra sugar, chopped roasted peanuts and rock salt for sprinkling

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 180 deg Celsius
  • Line a baking sheet with baking paper and leave until later
  • In a bowl, add the wet ingredients - pumpkin puree, peanut butter, chia egg and maple syrup - and coconut sugar, and beat until a smooth texture
  • Then add the rest of the dry ingredients - pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and rice flour, and further beat to a smooth texture and a sticky dough forms; you'll notice that the mixture is light and fluffy
Beaten Pumpkin, Peanut Butter & Chia Seed Cookie mixture
  • Using a tablespoon, drop spoon fulls of the mixture onto the pre-prepared baking sheets. While cooking, the cookies will expand, so leave enough space between the raw cookie drops to allow for this
  • You can flatten the cookies with your hands if you like (a spoon will be too sticky), and sprinkle the extra sugar, chopped roasted peanuts and a couple pieces of rock salt per cookie (the salt brings out the flavour, but too much is a little over-whelming)
  • Bake for 11 - 13 minutes
  • When time is up, remove from the oven and let the cookies cool