Why do healthy cookies always look so ugly? I am in a serious predicament here, as I am aiming to post healthy, wholesome foods and dishes in this blog. At the same time, I’d like to convince my readers that these foods are tasty. And for that, they should look good in the picture. Not so the common healthy cookie.
To tell you the truth, the icing on the cookies is in fact unnecessary for taste reasons. I put it on to make them look better. Otherwise they would have been some dark brown with black spots sort of round but still uneven baked something. Unphotographable!!!!!
I baked these last night and I especially got an icing pipe for this in the afternoon. What an effort….. Anyway, as this is my first icing pipe, I was not very proficient with it yet. It was also quite late when I used it. Not all cookies turned out as pretty as they were supposed to with the icing on. As these cookies were to be my husband’s breakfast this morning, I told him to eat the ugly ones first, so I can photograph the prettier ones a little later. Here we go: The nine prettiest cookies out of 25.
As everyone seems to blog about their New Year resolutions, I will do so too: Only recently I discovered the foodgawker website, a gallery of finest food photography shot by food bloggers. I WANT MY PICTURES ON FOODGAWKER. So far, they have rejected two submissions. I will improve my photographic skills, and keep trying. And keep eating healthy foods. That’s all.

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WALNUT PRUNE COOKIES
3/4 cup pitted prunes
3/4 walnuts, roughly chopped
1 ripe banana, mashed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/8 cup canola oil
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats (quick cooking or regular)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
ICING (OPTIONAL)
100g cream cheese
2 tablespoons agave syrup
Yields 25 cookies

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Preheat oven to 180C degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. You might have to bake these cookies in two batches.
Combine prunes and walnut in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. In a bowl, whisk together banana, egg, vanilla, baking soda, applesauce and oil. Stir in chopped prunes and walnuts. Add oats, flour, cinnamon and salt and stir until just combined.
Drop heaped teaspoons of the dough on the baking sheet. Gently press the dough down with your fingertips or a spoon to give the cookies the shape of a disc. Bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool on wire racks.
For the icing, combine cream cheese and agave syrup. Using an icing pipe, decorate each cookie with the cream cheese mixture. Let the icing become solid before transferring cookies to an airtight container.

11 Comments

  1. Hahahaha! This is a funny post! Good luck with Foodgawker 🙂 karen

  2. These look awesome!
    I think your photo is great- I find Foodgawker to be the pickiest of the big 3 (Tastespotting, Photograzing and FG)…sometimes one takes my photo and the others don’t…so far FG has only accepted 6 of my photos and the other sites have accepted far more, so go figure! It’s a good goal to have, though, because these sites will send you lots of traffic…that’s how I found you!

  3. @ Winnie,
    thanks for the encouraging words. I actually haven’t even submitted this picture. I have just started submitting photos to the big 3s. Not sure which one likes my work best. Just found that tastespotting gets me the most traffic.

  4. looking for a prune walnut cookie recipe…..your directions say add oats but I do not see them in the ingredient list. Would 1/2 cup oats be OK? lmadaffer82177@roadrunner.com

  5. Sorry for the mistake and thanks for pointing it out. I fixed it and, yes, 1/2 cup of oats goes in there.

  6. Are these chewy or crispy cookies?

  7. They were pretty chewy. But I guess it’s a question of how thin you roll them out. The thinner, the crispier they get.

  8. I’ve never baked cookies at 180 degrees. Is that correct?

  9. That would be 180 degrees Celsius, which is 375 Fahrenheit.

  10. Thanks Anja. I am going to bake the cookies right now. They sound delicious. I should have known that was Celsius.

  11. can i use whole wheat pastry flour instead of whole wheat flour

    thanks
    Deepa

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