Blueberry, Almond & Oat Breakfast Cookies (#vegan, #LowGL, #sugarfree)

On Thursday in my post Smoothies vs Juices and Plum Protein Smoothie I mentioned that I has the smoothie for breakfast with 2 of these cookies. They do not need to be breakfast cookies though and would be an excellent choice for a Low GL snack in the middle of the day.

When I bake I try to use ingredients that are low in the Glycemic Load scale and in particular I always try and replace any sugar with Xylitol with is a low GL naturally occurring sweetener. Xylitol can be found naturally in fruits like plums and most berries and is as sweet as regular sugar but with a much lower effect on blood sugar. The Xylitol you find in shops is usually extracted from birch. One word of warning is that consuming large amounts can have a laxative effect like other sugar products can.

These cookies have also been made with ground oats and ground almonds, both of which have an excellent effect on blood sugar meaning that these cookies have a GI of only 36 and a GL per cookie of only 3. That means that as a snack you could have 2 of these, so if you are sticking to a low GL diet and want something a bit different to get stuck into mid morning or afternoon then these cookies would be an excellent option.

I mentioned a few weeks ago about a Cranks cookbook that I have “borrowed” from my mum and then great healthy old fashioned recipes in it that and this recipe is actually adapted from one of theirs. As the book is as old as me and it is vegetarian there are a few adjustments I need to make to bring it up to date but that was where the inspiration came from.

Blueberry, Almond & Oat Breakfast Cookies

Makes 10

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 15 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

4 tbs Olive Oil

1/4 tsp Saxa So Low 50% Less Sodium Salt

1 tbs Ground Flaxseeds, soaked in 3 tbs water for 5-10mins
75g Total Sweet Total Sweet
100g Suma Ground Almonds
100g Mornflake Fine Oatmeal Stoneground
75g Blueberries

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

2. Lightly whisk together the oil, slat, xylitol and soaked flaxseeds.

3. Stir in the almonds and oatmeal until well combined.

4. Fold the blueberries into the dough.

5. Divide mixture into 10 equal balls and flatten onto baking sheet into cookie shapes.

6. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned.

7. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely (or you could just eat them warm straight from the oven!)

Nutrition

The nutrition data per cookie is below as calculated on Calorie Count:

The highlights of this recipe are:

• Low GI of only 36
• Very Low  eGL of only 3 per cookie (depends on exact size of each cookie)
• No cholesterol
• Very low in sodium
• Low in sugar