If you love apples and cookies but don’t want to eat flour or refined sugar, this recipe is for you. These delicious, chewy snacks are easy to make, lower in calories than traditional cookies, and downright delicious.
If you would like more apple recipes, see The Best Apple Recipes from Salads to Pies.
A Naturally Sweet Apple Cookie
These all-natural apple cookies get their delicious flavor by slow baking them in a conventional oven (on silicone mats with baking sheets) or using a food dehydrator.
Without flour or rising agents, they are dense and chewy—a perfect, satisfying snack.
Eat them as cookies or crumble them in a bowl and enjoy as a breakfast cereal with milk.
You can make them without added sugar or add some maple syrup for extra sweetness. The maple syrup is included in the nutritional analysis (below).
The recipe is easily adapted for different diets and allergies.
To Adapt the Recipe
- For a gluten-free version, avoid grains such as wheat, barley, rye and triticale (a cross between wheat and rye).
- For any other substitutions, just keep the volumes the same and use what you like (e.g. use walnuts instead of almonds or a combination in the same amount).
- You could also add dried blueberries, cranberries, mango or other fruit for extra sweetness.
Related: My Favorite Apple Crisp Recipe
Recipe
Unsweetened Apple Cookies (Flour-Free)
Ingredients
- 6 Apples medium or large
- 1/2 cup Almonds pecans, sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup Flax meal optional: wheat germ, oat bran
- 1/4 cup Maple syrup optional
- 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Nutmeg
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250°F (120°C).
- Core, peel, and grate apples with a cheese grater.
- Finely chop nuts and seeds.
- Combine all ingredients in large bowl and gently stir until sticking together and fully combined.
- Place large spoonfuls on non-stick sheets for oven or dehydrator and press down until about 1/3 inch thick.
- Bake in conventional oven for approximately 2-3 hours. Check every 15 minutes for desired final texture.
- Or, bake in dehydrator at 110°F (43°C) for approximately 9-10 hours.
- Store in airtight container up to one week or flash freeze and keep in freezer for 3 months.
Notes
- Crumble the cookies in a bowl and eat with milk of your choice as a breakfast cereal or snack.
Nutrition (per serving)
Food Dehydrator (Optional)
A food dehydrator is a fairly big investment and I would not recommend buying one unless you are going to use it a lot.
I bought a Excalibur Food Dehydrator to dry tomatoes, apples, and other fruits (dried mangoes are superb), and make raw crackers and bread. It has lasted for years without any issues.
There are plenty of other brands available as well: there were not a lot of options when I bought mine.
Things to look for:
Size: For me, the more trays, the better. It’s easy to fill them up and, once dehydrated, food is a fraction of its original size.
Mats: Be sure to get stick-free mats to line the trays. Some foods like fruit leathers have high water content and can only be made on a solid surface (or they would make a huge mess).
Settings: These machines are really just a heat fan that blows over the trays. Be sure the one you get has a nice range of settings for everything you want to make. Mine has a sliding scale so it suits everything.
Cost: Try online marketplaces to find used (or new, unused dehydrators). Lots of people buy them and lose interest in using them.
Alternative: An oven on low heat with a fan aimed into it does essentially the same thing, just much less efficiently.
~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛
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