Healthy Homemade Oreo Cookies, No-Bake, Vegan, Gluten Free
These healthy homemade Oreo Cookies are delicious and addicting. They are as delicious (or probably more since anything homemade is tastier) as the store bought versions but without those high fructose corn syrup and trans fat. And above all they are vegan and gluten free and require no cooking or baking.
These cookies are not low in calories since Dates and Cashew nuts do contain high calories in the form of sugar and fat. Yet these are healthier because alongwith calories, you also get 6 gms of protein, 2 mg of iron and 4 gms of fibre in each cookie. The store-bought Oreo is either devoid or has negligible quantity of them.
The inspiration for this recipe has come from the cookbook ” Rawsome Vegan Baking” by Emily von Euw. I have tweaked the recipe and incorporated some easy pantry stables like Oats and Peanuts.
Why are Oreo cookies black in color?
The store-bought Oreo cookies have a very dark brown, almost blackish color. That is due to the usage of a special kind of cocoa powder known as black cocoa. The process of making Black cocoa involves heavily dutching the cocoa powder. Both the dutch process powder and the black cocoa powder are treated with an alkaline solution to get a darker color. Natural cocoa powder has the lightest colour. Dutch process has a lovely dark brown colour with a reddish hue. Black cocoa powder is not very easily available. If you manage to get it locally or via online purchase, you can use it to get the exact dark brown/black color as store bought oreo cookies. Else you can use dutch process variety. Believe me, there will hardly be any difference in the taste.
The store-bought Oreo has a filling of cream. But for this version, cashew cream has been used. You can use any other nut of your choice but the trick is to use something which is whitish in colour.
I personally never liked the mint flavored oreo cookies but my daughter absolutely loves anything which has a mint flavor be it icecreams, cookies or anything. So I created the mint flavored filling by adding some moringa leaves ( drumstick leaves) powder to cashew butter with some mint oil. Moringa leaves gave a beautiful green color very similar to the mint filling in the store bought Mint oreo cookies.
If you are a dessert lover, you may like to check some more no bake desserts here.
WEIGHT WATCHERS FROZEN YOGURT BARKS
Please try these healthy homemade Oreo Cookies and let me know how they turned out for you.
Healthy Homemade Oreo Cookies, No-Bake, Vegan, Gluten free
These healthy homemade Oreo Cookies are delicious and addicting. They are as delicious (or probably more since anything homemade is tastier) as the store bought versions but without those high fructose corn syrup and trans fat. And above all they are vegan and gluten free and require no cooking or baking.
Ingredients for the Cookie
- ½ cup Dry roasted Oats. You can use either rolled oats or the quick cooking oats.
- ½ cup Roasted Walnuts or Peanuts. You can use any other nut of your choice too like Almonds or Pecan.
- 3/4 cup Soft Dates. If your dates are not soft, soak them in hot water for sometime to soften them. If they are soft, it will be easy to grind them. (You can increase the quantity of dates if you prefer more sweetness.)
- 2 tbsp Any vegan Milk. I used Almond milk.
- 1 tbsp Unsweetened Black Cocoa Powder or Dutch Processed Dark Cocoa Powder.
Ingredients for the Cream filling
- ½ cup Cashew Nuts
- ½ cup Any Vegan milk
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 tsp Coconut oil
- 2 tsp Maple Syrup. You can use Honey for a Non Vegan option.
Additional ingredients for the Mint Cream
- 1 tsp Moringa Powder. You can use readymade moringa powder. Or, powder dry drumstick leaves and use. Or you can use green food color too.
- 2 drops Peppermint oil.
Make the Cookies
Add Oats to a blender jar.
Also add Walnuts or peanut along with the Oats.
Make a coarse powder.
Take this out into a Bowl.
Grind dates to a paste. Add some Vegan milk to help in grinding.
Add this paste to the oats mixture.
Add cocoa powder.
Knead to make a soft dough.
Add a few spoons of any vegan milk if your dough appears dry.
Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll out to a thickness of 1/4 inch. If you are using an adjustable rolling pin, you can put the 1/4 inch or 6 mm disk.
using a cookie cutter or any bowl with sharp edges, cut out disks from the rolled out dough.
Knead the remaining dough again and cut out more disks till all the dough is used up.
Refrigerate the disks.
Make the Cashew Cream
Soak cashew nuts in milk at least for 3-4 hours. You can also soak them overnight.
Add cashew nuts to a blender jar.
Add Vanilla extract.
Add coconut Oil.
Add Maple syrup or Honey.
Grind everything to a fine paste.
If your paste appears watery, you may refrigerate it for sometime so that it firms up.
Make the Mint cream
Take some cashew cream in a bowl.
Add Moringa powder which is the powder of drumstick leaves.
Add Peppermint oil.
Mix everything together. Refrigerate if needed.
Assembly
Spread the Cashew cream filling between two cookies.
For best results, refrigerate the cookies for a few hours so that the cashew cream solidifies and coconut oil will lend a bright white color once it solidifies..
Please use a heavy duty blender for your grinding.
There is no particular order in which the ingredients for the cookie should be ground.
You can also add oats, walnuts and dates to a food processor and blend till everything comes together.
I sometimes grind oats separately or use store-bought oat flour by roasting it.
Then I grind walnuts and dates together. In that case, you can use slightly firm dates as well.
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