Casserole Cookies (Healthy & Indulgent Versions!)

Sarah’s recent post on Skillet Cookies nudged me to finally trial these easy, fun Christmas casserole cookies for a holiday morning treat. They’re a similar type of cookie to Sarah’s, but with slight variations in the ingredients and the “dough” is baked rather than cooked on the stove top. I use the term dough loosely, as these really are holiday-style chunky cookies that have a no-bake vibe. Nonetheless, I think they’re easily a year-round treat.

These casserole cookies also gave me another great excuse to whip out my Revol Bakeware. I am seriously addicted to this stuff! The Les Naturels line is beautiful, easy to clean, and eco-friendly. I’m doing my best to transition away from regular non-stick and Revol is making it oh-so-easy. I used their Square Baker in this recipe. Note that they say it is “10×10” (roughly) on their website, but that is the outer measurement. It is a fairly standard 9×9-inch pan.

Deal Alert: Get 20% off ALL Revol products (cookware, bakeware, serveware, etc!) with the discount code “4QH4LTD9” on www.revol1768.com. They also have FREE shipping for purchases of $150 or more. This offer is valid until February 28, 2017.

Note that the casserole cookies pictured here have my healthier ingredient modifications. Both the sweeter and the healthier versions are delicious. One is just more of a dessert while the other is sweet snack-worthy. I’ve also updated the yield for accuracy, and changed the instructions based on my own tests.

And did I mention that these are naturally dairy-free and gluten-free? No modifications were needed to make these Christmas casserole cookies a perfect fit for our household.

Special Diet Notes: Casserole Cookies

By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, gluten-free, grain-free, peanut-free, soy-free, and vegetarian.

Casserole Cookies (Healthy or Holiday Indulgent!)

 

Print

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

50 mins

 

This easy, snackable recipe is adapted from a recipe shared by Joyce on Allrecipes.com.

Author: Alisa Fleming

Serves: 32 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• ½ cup coconut sugar or cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup finely chopped pitted dates (see note below)
• 1 cup shredded coconut (see note below)
• 1 cup finely chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF and grease a 9x9-inch casserole dish.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer. Beat in the sugar and extracts. Stir in the dates, coconut, and walnuts. Spoon the mixture into your prepared casserole dish.
3. Bake for 15 minutes. Stir and bake for 15 more minutes.
4. Immediately stir well with a wooden or silicone spoon to break it up and combine.
5. Let cool for just 5 minutes. While still warm, form the mixture into 1-inch balls.

Optional Garnish

1. You can roll the balls in more shredded coconut (sweetened for stickier), sugar, powdered sugar, or ground nuts. I recommend doing this while the cookies are still warm, but powdered sugar still clings nicely, even after they've cooled.

Notes

Date Note: I use Medjool Dates because they are easy and affordable at Trader Joe's and work well in recipes. You can swap in another type of dates, but do not use pre-chopped dates, they're too dry.
Coconut Note: For a healthier, snack-worthy version, I use unsweetened shredded coconut. But for a straight-up dessert and stickier, more cohesive dough, you can use sweetened shredded coconut. Using regular sugar rather than coconut sugar will also yield a slightly sweeter, moister cookie.

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