No Sugar Added Classic Cookies

Why This No Sugar Added Classic Cookies Works

In the bowl, the mashed bananas and applesauce act like the “glue” and the sweetness at the same time. As the whole wheat flour and oats go in, they soak up that moisture and swell a bit, so the dough gets thick enough to scoop but still soft. Coconut oil slides in between everything and keeps the dough from drying out, so the cookies stay tender instead of turning hard.

In the oven, the baking soda and baking powder react in the wet dough and create tiny bubbles. Those bubbles stay trapped by the oats and flour, so the cookies puff slightly instead of spreading flat. As heat moves through, the bananas and applesauce dry out just enough to set, and the outside starts to brown. Walnuts and shredded coconut toast a little on the surface, while the centers stay chewy. After a few minutes of cooling, the cookies firm up more, so they can be picked up without crumbling but still feel soft when bitten.

Mistakes To Avoid

Using bananas that aren’t fully ripe often leaves the dough too dry and stiff, because the bananas haven’t broken down and don’t bring much natural sweetness or moisture. The cookies then bake up dense and bready instead of soft and cookie-like.

Pouring hot, just-melted coconut oil straight onto the bananas and applesauce can partly cook them and create little greasy pockets. The fat doesn’t blend in smoothly, so the cookies spread unevenly and some spots turn oily while others stay dry.

Overmixing once the dry ingredients go in causes the whole wheat flour to tighten up and the oats to break down too much. The baked cookies end up tough and chewy in a hard way, instead of soft and slightly cakey.

Letting the dough sit around too long before baking gives the oats and flour more time to soak up the liquid. The scooped mounds then don’t spread much in the oven and can turn out thick, dry, and a bit crumbly.