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Yes, I like vegetables, but I also like cookies. And let me tell you, having three little girls is a good excuse to make cookies. Lots of cookies. Chocolate Chocolate Cookies. Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies. Bittersweet Chocolate Dried Apricot Cookies. Hazelnut Tea Cookies. Savory Oatmeal Cookies with Rosemary and Black Pepper. Butterscotch cookies (go ahead, sandwich them with Nutella).
Those cookies above, as you may notice, do not fall into the health food category. And that’s ok. But these cookies below? They come awfully close. And they’re lovely. And I will be making them often. And I will let my kids eat them for breakfast.
The original recipe comes from Hannah, a fellow Seattleite, chef, and writer of Blue Kale Road. You should go read her post, a sweet reflection on enjoying the ordinary moments in life, and then you should go to the kitchen and make these cookies.
It’s almost a granola recipe, maple-sweetened with oats and salt and cinnamon. And since I love my olive-oil granola so much, I figured that olive oil would work perfectly here as well. And it does. Did I mention that these cookies are vegan?
This batch was filled with fig jam, since I had two open jars in the fridge. (How does that happen?) Tomorrow maybe I’ll try raspberry. Hannah says the cookies freeze nicely, assuming you have any left over for long enough to freeze. We didn’t.
Healthy Jam Thumbprint Cookies: In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 c. oats, 1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour, 3/4 c. oat flour*, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, and a good pinch of cinnamon. Mix well. Add 1/2 c. maple syrup and 1/2 c. plus 1 Tbsp. olive oil and mix well again until the dry ingredients are evenly coated.
Working with slightly damp hands, compress dough into balls about 1 1/2″ in diameter. Flatten each slightly onto a lined cookie sheet and make a deep impression in the middle with your thumb. The cookies may be crumbly at this stage, but no worries; just press them back together if you need to. Fill each cookie with a scant teaspoon of jam.
Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes, until the tops of the cookies are beginning to brown. Allow the cookies to cool a bit before digging in.
*You can easily make your own 3/4 c. oat flour by finely grinding 1 c. rolled oats in your food processor.
Emmy Cooks 
Cookies for breakfast is definitely how I like to start my Sundays!
Oh, yes. And Mondays, and Tuesdays, and…
They look so rustic and delicious – I love it!
The fact that they’re so darn cute is definitely a bonus!
These sound tasty! And if anyone objects to their cookies having “healthy” in the title, you could always call them “granola cookies” instead. : )
Good idea. Although if others shun them for being “healthy” there will be more left for me!
Vegan olive oil cookies? You really do love me, don’t you. ;-) These look amazing and I can’t wait to try them.
Everyone needs cookies, right? And although I’m far from vegan myself, I always like the gourmet vegan angle. :)
Oh girl, you know I’ll be making these! It’s like you were thinking of me when you posted them ;)
Yeah, not really sure how you ended up with 2 jars of fig jam in the fridge. When I buy fig jam, it always disappears immediately!
You need to make some yourself, then! I realized that my fig jam surplus was from when we made it recently and one of the jars didn’t seal. :)
Oh man, when there are fresh figs around I can’t bear to turn them into jam. Even though I love fig jam! Seriously my favorite fresh fruit ever! Wonder if figs can be made into fresh freezer jam…. Intrigued….
I’m going to try these! I like sweets, but a lot of cookies are tooth-achingly over-sugared (IMHO 😊). The only problem for me is that my guy can’t eat oatmeal (I sure can!). That does pose some challenges since it comes up so often in recipes. These may just need to be all mine, in which case it’s a darn good thing they can be frozen, just to help me pace myself.
I can eat a lot of sugar, but these were nice, too. :) I wouldn’t mind having a stash of these all to myself!
Emmy these look so good!! And surely a passable breakfast … or after school snack?? Yes.
Oh, yes. Surely. :)
These look just beautiful Emmy! They remind me of cookies my mother used to make often – yum!
How lucky! What a nice mom. I think I’ll be doing the same for my kids. :)
I am making these soon! Maybe today. They look fabulous! YUM! I might have to put chocolate chips or peanut butter in some, instead of jam, to get my son to try them. Not sure if I can get away with them for breakfast if I do the chocolate. Hmmm, dark chocolate is supposed to be healthy, right? :)
I LOVE the idea of making these with lighly-sweetened peanut butter, yum! We eat oatmeal with peanut butter all winter, it’s such a great combination! And I never say no to anything involving chocolate, and yes it’s very healthy. :)
I’m delighted you enjoyed the cookies, Emmy! I’m envious of your fig jam…what a wonderful filling. Have a great week!
Thank you so much for sharing the recipe! They’re definitely going to become a household staple around here.
I love thumbprint cookies! Can’t wait to try these.
I never make them for some reason but I sure loved these! I’m going to have to branch out in this department. I don’t see any way to go wrong with cookies plus jam!
Those look delicious! That’s so funny you mentioned them being like granola because I actually have a chocolate cinnamon granola recipe on my blog with several of these ingredients! They do make great granola and cookies too from the looks of yours! I will need to try these…yummy! :)
Yum, that sounds amazing! Sharing the link here so others can find it easily: http://thehealthyflavor.com/2012/07/16/chocolate-cinnamon-granola/
Thank you so much!! That is so kind of you! :)
I made these today and they are fabulous! I made some chocolate, some peanut butter and some with raspberry jam. And my son had one of the chocolate ones for an after-school snack. Success! Can’t wait to do some more tweaks with the fillings!
Can I do a blog post on them, with a link to your blog?
So glad you liked them! I love the chocolate and peanut butter ideas. And as you know, there are no new recipes under the sun, or something like that–I always think recipe ideas are meant to be shared! I myself was inspired to make these cookies by Hannah of bluekaleroad.com. :)
Thanks! I looked at her post before I made them. I ended up using half olive oil and half canola. I mixed a little milk with the peanut butter (Smucker’s Natural, smooth) before I filled them. Next time I think I’ll use honey instead of milk. And I didn’t use enough chocolate…more next time! Love these cookies!
I collect and bake healthy cookies for kids, so will be sure to try your recipe. So much to learn! I recently discovered that stevia. a no-claorie sugar substitute from plants that works in baking – and have been experimenting. Fun!
Emmy! I made these for Donny, filled them with Alan’s Plum jam and he loved them. (magic word: vegan!) Then I made a second batch of the dough, but added mini chocolate chips and coconut (no thumbprint), and he loved those, too. We were eating them (both kinds) for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and snacks! It’s time to make some more…
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Made these yesterday. Switched out half the olive oil for applesauce and cut the maple syrup a little. Strawberry jam on top. SOOOO yummy. Thanks so much for sharing a very versatile little gem.
Great idea! I’m trying them with your applesauce addition (oil subtraction) next time. :)
OMG, I LOVE this! I am definitely going to try this one!
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