Spoil your family with these healthy no-bake cookies. Sweetened naturally with maple syrup and banana. And if you follow a vegan diet, these treats are for you, too!
These healthy no-bake cookies use one of our favorite natural sweeteners. We call it liquid gold at our house, and our stinginess roars to the forefront when our boys start liberally pouring the maple syrup over their waffles. We become highly unreasonable guardians of the sweet amber liquid.
"Pour slowly! That's enough! That's the good stuff, you know?!"
When it comes to baked (or no-bake) goods, pure maple syrup is the ideal sweetener. It's an unprocessed sweetener, it imparts a rich flavor and a little goes a long way.
If I'm going to tempt my older son and husband with any treats, there has to be some redeeming "healthy" factor. And these healthy no-bake cookies have plenty...they're full of protein-rich almond butter and almond milk, and fiber-filled oats and they're sweetened with maple syrup and a ripe, mashed banana. If you follow a vegan diet, this treat is for you, too!
The trick to getting these cookies to hold together is to boil the mixture until it thickens and reaches about 205 degrees F, which takes about 10 minutes. This also caramelizes the maple syrup, which lends a caramel taste to the cookies.
That's never a bad thing.
Other maple recipes:
Healthy Seasonal Recipes' Maple-Chipotle Flank Steak Tacos
The Spiced Blog's Maple Pecan Coconut Granola Bars
Healthy No-Bake Maple Cookies {Vegan}
Ingredients
- 1 ripe banana mashed well
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoon almond milk
- ½ cup almond butter
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- â…› teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ cups old-fashioned oats
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, combine the mashed banana, almond milk, almond butter, maple syrup and salt. Heat over medium heat.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently.
- Cook until the mixture thickens (if using a candy thermometer, the temperature should reach about 200 degrees F), about 10 minutes.
- Stir in the oats and vanilla extract.
- Drop the mixture by tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with waxed or parchment paper.
- Let cool to room temperature. Serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Other healthy dessert recipes:
Cookin' Canuck's Whole Wheat Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cookin' Canuck's No-Bake Carrot Cake Granola Bites {Low Sugar & Gluten-Free}
Disclosure: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Paulette
I was so excited to try this. Love the old chocolate peanut butter ones but since I started eating vegan I needed a healthier choice. Also live maple. But all I could taste was the banana. I felt like I wasted so many oats on this. They’re not bad but definitely not maple.
Ashley
These were so tasty! I wouldn’t classify these as healthy with all the sugar & carbs but I just loved the simplicity, taste, & texture.
Sandra
Definitely follow her instruction to let the syrup thicken and reach about 205 degrees. It makes a difference for holding the cookies together. We really like the flavors in these cookies, and appreciate that they’re sweetened with maple syrup.
Shannon
I wouldn't say that pure maple syrup is "unprocessed." That's not exactly true. Having made maple syrup, there's quite a bit of processing that goes into boiling down 40-50 gallons of sap from a sugar maple tree (for many hours, I might add) to get a mere 1 gallon of syrup. Is it healthier than white sugar? Sure! But it still needs to be moderated as any other simple sugar. Just wanted to point out that it can't be used as freely as one wants without detriment to health. 🙂 Thanks for the recipe, though! Looks yummy!
Erin @ Texanerin Baking
I'm impressed that your son can only be tempted by healthier sweets! That's awesome. 🙂
And these look so, so good. I absolutely love the ingredients!
Cathy Cicek
They look delicious. Do you think that using regular milk and peanut butter would work? Thanks 🙂
becky
These are on my list to make!! I love no bakes but actually would prefer maple to chocolate any day! Perfect recipe for me!!
Courtney @ Neighborfood
I absolutely love these Dara. Maple and banana is one of my favorite combos. I definitely need to keep these around for those days I'm craving a sweet snack.
cheri
These look and sound delicious, love that they are only 60 calories.
Ari @ Ari's Menu
Loving the banana/almond butter/maple syrup combo--they all go so perfectly together!
Norma | Allspice and Nutmeg
Oh wow, I would definitely make these.
Amanda
A perfect snack! Healthy and no-bake is a great combo 🙂
Jenny Flake
What a great looking cookie! Will definitely be trying these with the boys!
David @ Spiced
These look absolutely delicious! I seriously wish I could just grab them off of my screen. I love the fact that they're healthy, too...afternoon snack, here I come!!
Yankee Kitchen Ninja (Julianne)
Healthy AND no-bake? Well, I don't mind if I do! These sound like the perfect treat to satisfy my afternoon cookie cravings. Thanks!