Cookies are a much-beloved baked treat, but they're often made with unhealthy ingredients like butter and white sugar. Today, we want to show you how to prepare incredibly tasty butternut squash cookies with just wholesome ingredients.
In our recipe, we swapped butter and eggs with homemade squash puree and used maple syrup instead of refined sugar. Also, we made a high-fibre, nutritious combo of wholemeal flour and almond meal to replace plain flour.
These all-natural, plant-based cookies are egg-free, dairy-free, oil-free, and 100% healthy. They have a lovely cakey texture and a lightly spiced aroma from ground cloves, cinnamon and ginger.
Butternut squash puree is a fantastic alternative to fats, like butter, oil and eggs. It adds moisture, natural sweetness and helps to bind the ingredients, all with a fraction of the calories. You can prepare it in different ways, such as steaming or boiling the squash. Still, we prefer roasting it in the oven to get that amazing caramelised flavour from the naturally occurring sugars.
Each biscuit comes with as little as 65 calories, and a serving of four cookies covers only 11% of your RDI of carbs but a solid 20% RDI of proteins and 27% RDI of fibres.
These vegan, diet-friendly butternut squash cookies are just perfect for a sweet breakfast or as an afternoon treat enjoyed with a cup of our turmeric hot chocolate. Yummy!
Ingredients
| Butternut Squash (peeled and deseeded) | 250 g |
| Wholemeal Flour | 200 g |
| Almond Flour | 100 g |
| Baking Soda | 1 tsp |
| Clove | 1 pinch |
| Ground Cinnamon | 1 tsp |
| Ground Ginger | 1/2 tsp |
| Lemon | 1 |
| Maple Syrup | 60 mL |
Step 1
Peel the butternut squash, remove the seeds, and cut it into chunks. Then, roast them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper for 30-40 minutes at 180 °C (355 °F) in static mode (1).
The squash is ready when you can easily mash the baked chunks with a fork.
Now, blitz them in a food processor or mash them into a smooth puree (2).
Step 2
Add wholemeal flour, almond flour, baking soda, clove, ground cinnamon, ginger to a bowl and give all a good mix (1).
Now, tip in the lemon zest, butternut squash puree, and maple syrup (2).
Step 3
Work the ingredients in the bowl until they come together, and then transfer the mixture onto your worktop.
Knead for a few minutes until you have a smooth and compact dough.
Step 4
Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper to a 3 mm thickness.
Then, use a cookie cutter or sharp-edged glass to cut out the cookie shapes. We made ours 8 cm (3 in) in diameter.
Knead any leftover dough into a ball and repeat this step until you have it used all.
Step 5
Transfer the cookies onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake them for 15 minutes at 175 °C (325 °F) in static mode (1).
If you're baking them on multiple trays, use the fan mode at 155 °C (310 °F) and swap the trays top to bottom after the first 10 minutes of cooking time to get an even browning.
Finally, transfer the cookies onto a wire rack to cool down and harden (2).
Tips
On top of cinnamon, ginger, and clove, you can also use cardamom. Grind the contents of one pod into a powder and add it to the flours mix in step 2.
You can garnish these butternut squash cookies with our sugar-free glaze and a sprinkle of ground cinnamon.
Once they're completely cold, immediately transfer the cookies into an airtight container and store them for up to 5 days.
If you liked this healthy cookie recipe, check out these ideas next: chocolate chip cauliflower cookies, gluten-free oat applesauce cookies, protein hemp seed cookies, and date almond pulp cookies.