You may not associate healthy eating with eating cookies, and yet guess what? Here you go! And I assure you these little treats are not only healthy, but also very, very delicious.

Texture-wise, they’re a lot more like “regular” (i.e., non-healthy) cookies than any I’ve come across before — a real bonus! You’ll also notice that there’s no added salt, nor any leavening whatsoever; I didn’t realize it was possible to make a cookie without leavening myself, but I’ve made these enough times now to be convinced. :)

I developed this recipe recently because I needed a way to get walnuts into my son, and I recalled that German lebkuchen (gingerbread) often uses nut meals rather than flour as their base. This recipe contains a small amount of whole grain flour, but a large amount of ground walnuts. So they’re healthy and yet fairly high in fat, so budget accordingly if you’re in weight loss mode right now. (The recipe contains approximately 4 oz. of walnuts, so 1/4 of the recipe equals a 1 oz. portion of walnuts. That’s about 3 cookies.)

Here’s what you need:

1 c. raw walnuts, ground finely in food processor
1/2 c. brown rice flour or whole wheat flour (oat flour would also work)
3/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. honey (optional)
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 apple, cored and chopped finely
1/4 c. raisins

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Oil a large (13″ x 9″ or larger) cookie sheet. (I skip this step sometimes.) Stir together all ingredients except chopped apple and raisins just until smooth. Fold in apples and raisins.

Drop by heaping tablespoon onto cookie sheet. Mash with fork or spoon to make cookie even. (Same principle as peanut butter cookies — the goal is even thickness across entire cookie.) Bake for 15 minutes or until barely brown and center of cookie is firm. Remove from oven; cook for 5 minutes before removing cookies from baking sheet with sturdy spatula.

Makes approximately 12 cookies (can easily be doubled or tripled)

Healthy eating notes:

Even if you’re tempted, don’t go overboard with the “stuff.” If you add in too many apples or raisins, the cookies will not stick together (but taste delicious nonetheless!). Just eat the remaining half apple or give it to someone in your household. My son happily munches the leftovers every time I make these.

If you happen to have some around, these cookies are to-die-for fabulous when made with homemade applesauce (I make a batch just about every week because my son loves the stuff). Otherwise, I recommend any of the unsweetened organic brands available.

As always, there is no salt added to this recipe because we get enough sodium from whole foods, but you can add a pinch (if you must). ;)

Copyright 2009 Jennifer McCay

www.LeanGreenMama.com