These M&M cookies are healthier, higher in fiber and essential nutrients because of the healthy flour. Vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free.
Health M&M Cookies
Soft and chewy M&M Cookies that actually make a healthy filling snack thanks to the use of oat flour and other ingredients. These festive cookies are also super easy to make and quick thanks to reduced ingredients and steps. And to keep it vegan, I used a vegan brand of M&M's but you can use original M&M's if you don't need the cookies to be vegan.
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Ingredients Needed for Healthy M&M Cookies
Ingredients for these cookies are similar to the ingredients of classic cookies with a few healthy swaps. The flour is not all purpose or a gluten-free mix but in fact highly nutritious oat flour. Almond flour can also be used.
The simple ingredient list is:
- oat flour (or almond flour)
- butter (I used vegan butter)
- brown & organic sugar (I used coconut palm sugar and organic cane)
- aquafaba (liquid from a can of UNSALTED chickpeas, or use unsweetened apple sauce or egg replacer for 1 egg)
- baking soda, vanilla, salt
- M&M candies or vegan version
How to Make Healthy M&M Cookies
You can find the detailed recipe for Healthy M&M Cookies at the bottom of this post or by using the Jump to Recipe button at the top. Here is a quick summary of steps:
Step 1. Prep by preheating your oven to 350 F, and lining your cookie sheet with parchment paper. For this small batch of 12 cookies, I use a quarter-sized cookie sheet.
Step 2. Cream butter with sugars and add in aquafaba, liquid from a can of chickpeas or applesauce, and vanilla.
Step 3. Add oat flour, baking soda and salt to creamed mixture and stir or mix. Fold in mix-ins.
Step 4. Use a small cookie scoop to put 12 cookies on pan, and top with mix-ins.
Step 5. Bake for 12 minutes, sprinkle top with a few more mix-ins, and cool and eat!
Tips for the Best Healthy M&M Cookies
My recipe is easy and quick but here are a few tips to help your cookies become a great success:
1. Measure the flour correctly. You can weigh it but I have great success using the spoon and leveling method. Just loosen the flour in the bag with a fork. Use the fork to fill measuring cups and use a knife to level the cups.
2. Don't Chill The Dough. Oat flour tends to dry out fast so chilling the dough will result in dry cookies.
Why This Is My Favorite Healthy M&M Cookie Recipe
I love this recipe because it is gluten-free yet soft and healthy thanks to the oat flour.
I use gluten free baking flours sometimes, but I have a daughter who can't eat the collection of ingredients found in some GF flours including rice and tapioca. As many people can, she tolerates plain oat flour.
And oat flour is naturally gluten-free so perfect for gluten-free recipes. Plus the oat flour makes the cookie taste extra delicious and buttery.
Substitutions for These Cookie Recipe Ingredients
1. The Flour. You can use almond flour instead of oat flour, just reduce the amount since almond flour is much heavier.
2. The Egg replacer. I use 3 tbsp of aquafaba here which is the liquid from a can of unsalted chickpeas. You can use 3 tbsp of apple sauce instead or even a flax seed egg which is 1 tbsp of flax seed dissolved for 10 minutes in 3 tbsp of water.
3. The Sugars. In the future, I plan on testing this recipe using no sugars and maple syrup instead. I realize this will involve increasing the flour though so I will update this post when I have done that recipe test.
Can You Freeze These Cookies?
Yes, these cookies can be frozen after baking, or the dough frozen before baking. Both last three months in the freezer.
More Easy Healthy Desserts:
- Homemade Milano Cookies
- 2-Ingredient Cut Out Cookies
- Vegan Royal Icing
- Rocky Road Fudge
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies
- Chocolate Protein Balls
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Healthy M&M Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup oat flour (or 1 ¼ cup almond flour or GF flour)
- ¼ cup butter (I use Earth Balance vegan brand)
- ¼ cup brown sugar (I use organic coconut palm sugar)
- ¼ cup cane sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
- 3 tbsp aquafaba (Liquid from a can of unsalted chickpeas, or use unsweetened apple sauce or egg replacer for 1 egg)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla
- pinch of salt
Mix-in
- ¼ cup M&Ms I use a vegan brand
Instructions
Prep
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Add parchment paper to a cookie sheet.
- Soften butter in microwave for 10 seconds
Make Cookies
- In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugars, then add in aquafaba and vanilla.
- Add oat flour, baking soda and salt to a sifter and sift the mixture into the creamed butter. Or just stir the dry ingredients in a bowl, and add to the creamed butter.
- Stir the mixture until creamy. You can use a mixer. The dough will be sticky. I don't chill this dough - it dries out the oat flour and makes cookies crumble.
- Use a rubber spatula to fold in M&Ms
- Using a small cookie scoop, scoop 12 cookies on to the cookie sheet. Press some M&Ms on top.
- Bake for 12 minutes until brown around the ages.
- Let them cool a few minutes, then top each cookie with more M&Ms
Storage
- Allow them to cool before putting them in a container. Oat flour will cause the cookies to dry out fast, so keep them contained.
- Both dough and baked cookies freeze up to 3 months.
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