Healthy PB Coofins with Hints of Banana and Cinnamon.

I couldn't think of a shorter name to call these cookies/muffins that'd describe them enough. They aren't quite a peanut butter cookie and have more of the texture of a muffin. So therefore here became the Healthy Peanut Butter Coofins with Hints of Banana and Cinnamon.

I started out looking for a great recipe for cookies. Little did I know my results would give me a nice moist coofin. The great thing about coofins if they pair well with jam. You could even, if you'd like make your own PB &J coofin sandwich using this coofin as the bread. Sound delicious, right? Onto the rest of this story....

I wanted to find a recipe for cookies that are healthier then your regular sugary ones. So I found these peanut butter cookies from  Heidi at 101 Cookbooks. Those looked nice I thought. I didn't want to use oil this time though. I was about to use applesauce in replace, but my apple sauce in my fridge was slightly moldy(yuck). That idea went out the window. I had one ripe banana on the counter staring me down not to waste it. So the banana was mashed and used. Once I used that everything else in the recipe changed slightly or you could say more then slightly so much that they aren't even really a cookie or even remotely close to the recipe I found besides the peanut butter and maple syrup pretty much.

I'll admit I can't follow someones recipe for the life of me. My Dad keeps saying "when baking, things need to be exact or it won't turn out right". In my defense I say "I'm learning from my fails". Which is absolutely true. I am becoming a better baker and learning what things work and don't in baking. Lately I've become rather good at baking and coming up with more of my own recipes. Which is a lot of fun, it's nice to share something and to be able to call it your own.

Now finally my Healthy Peanut Butter with Hint of Banana and Cinnamon Coofins. I hope you make up a batch soon and try not to eat them all at once. Don't forget to share too!

Healthy PB with Hints of Banana and Cinnamon Cookies

yielded about 19 cookies for me

1 3/4 cup spelt flour (you could easily use whole wheat pastry flour or maybe others)

1/4 cup golden flax meal, regular flax meal works fine too

1 cup peanut butter, I used crunchy

1 very ripe banana, mashed 

1 cup 100% pure maple syrup(Can be subbed with agave)

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp salt (I used less since I'm a little more sensitive to salt)

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F

Combine the wet ingredients; mashed bananas, maple syrup, peanut butter, and vanilla into a bowl and mix tell some what combined. In another bowl add the dry ingredients; flour, flax meal, salt, and baking soda in to another bowl mixing thoroughly. Slowly combine the dry ingredients to the wet. This will form a super sticky dough(I highly suggest putting it in the fridge for a while before working with. I didn't put it in the fridge and it took me a while to form them on the sheet.). Drop the cookies onto a oiled baking sheet or a parchment covered baking sheet. 

Cook for 8-12 minutes depending on your ovens or the size you made the cookies. Keep and eye on them so they don't burn! Because who would want burnt cookies? Certainly not me!

P.S. These cookies make a great before or after a work-out snack! Or even a snack in general when you don't want anything overly sugary, but want that subtle sweetness. 

Carob Balls? More Like PB Balls.

    My dad and I are in LOVE with carob after trying some type of carob square or bite. We first saw them at a health foods store in Cedar City months ago. I admit I didn't try the ones from Cedar City, but my dad said they were good. My dad tried to make them last as long as possible, but at last nothing last forever. Lucky us when we stumbled into Cali's Natural Foods for our first time we saw that they had carob bites! These had a few different ingredients then the others, but they are full of nut and very light and crunchy.

For those of you that don't know what carob is it a lot like chocolate. Unlike chocolate though it has a naturally sweet taste to it and is completely safe for dogs. It's even said that in Ancient Egypt it was a common sweetener and used in hieroglyphs for "sweet".

Carob has some amazing heath benefits to it as well. 

• It's great for digestion.
• It's great for infants or adults who have diarrhea 
• It has no caffeine for the people that are worried about lowering their caffeine intake.
• It's said to help lung cancer if eaten on a regular basis.
• It lowers the cholesterol level in blood.
• Carob contains vitamin E which helps cure flu, cough, anemia, and osteoclasis.
• Plus probably more that I don't know about.

Carob is a great alternative to people that can't eat chocolate like my dad for instance. Even if you can have chocolate I recommend carob because of all it's health benefits alone! Warning though it may take you a few bites to get used to it, but after three bites of it I was hooked!

Since the getting buying carob bites can get so pricey my dad told me I should make some. I told him I couldn't make them into squares, but in the form of balls would easily be do able. So off I went searching for a recipe that sounded something like the carob bites we've been eating. I found nothing that sounded like them, but I did get a few ideas. There I was grabbing a jar of peanut butter(since I didn't have any almond butter(that I wanted to use at least), oats, pumpkin seeds, raisins, and some raw honey(you could easily use agave, brown rice syrup or even maple syrup). I threw them all in the food processor and formed some balls(I have the hardest time not laughing while saying that). They turned out good, but more like a peanut butter cookie with a after taste of carob. In fact.......I just went and got one to eat right now. mmmmmmm(:

Peanut Butter Balls with Hint of Carob

made about 22 1in. balls

2/3 Cups pumpkin seeds or pepitas

1/4 Cup oats

2/3 Cups peanut butter

2 Tbsp liquid sweetener of choice(like raw honey, 100% maple syrup, etc.)

2 Tbsp + 1 tsp carob powder

1/2 Cup raisins*

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until combined.

Then form them into balls or shape them into a mold and put in fridge for at least half an hour so they set.

* for the raisins pack them down in a cup if they're loosely packed then measure about 2/3 cup. I recommend putting the raisins first in the food processor unless you want chunks of raisins.

Up Close Shot

I think this recipe needs a bit tweaking(swap with almond butter and more carob or carob chips?), but for my first try they weren't terrible. I can't wait to have fun experimenting with these though. I'll definitely be venturing of from different flavors besides carob and peanut butter too.