No eggs! I'd add one or two.

It's a "healthy" recipe, so yes. lol! If she liked the flavor and sweetness as it is, I'd just try adding an egg.

I'm with Ricky on this one. Unless there are dietary restrictions, what's the point of "healthy" cookies?? If you want healthy, make a salad!

My favorite oatmeal cookie recipe has very little flour (only 2/3 cup) but 12 Tbsp of butter (1 and a half sticks), a whole cup of brown sugar (and 1/2 cup of granulated) and 1 large egg. And where's the seasoning in that recipe?? Not even any cinnamon?

I found another one that used peanut butter or whatever sort of nut butter you preferred. But because it is going to school, it cannot contain any nut butter or peanut butter.

Ricky, I agree with you on the “healthy cookie” oxymoron.

I’ll tell her to try adding an egg.

GG48, I agree. Just make a d@mn oatmeal cookie. But DD and DSIL are personally into “healthy“ food. She probably chose a recipe without cinnamon because DGD2 gets diaper rash when she eats cinnamon.

To keep it healthy but less crumbly I'd use white wheat flour and add an egg

She could also add some applesauce or plain Greek yogurt for more moisture

As an alternative to nut butter, there are seed butters like techinah (sesame) and sunflower. There are egg replacers and garbanzo bean goo, though I have no idea why eggs wouldn't be considered “healthy”. I think for anti-crumble you need sticky as well as damp.

What I don't get is the lifestyle point of non-cookie cookies. This is a general observation—people have their own reasons for making their choices. This is about my own way of thinking. Better make a habit of eating whole fruit, nuts and seeds, than reaching for a cookie, even a “healthy” one.

Part of it might be that it's a UK recipe... their flours can be a bit different than U.S. flours. Their whole wheat is usually coarser with a higher protein and slightly lower gluten content. Our brown sugar is usually granulated+molasses, and theirs often uses a more superfine sugar, with molasses and sometimes golden syrup, or sometimes using sugar beet syrup. Their butter is a bit different, try using a European butter- Kerrygold is pretty common in the states.

Oh! Beesneeds's point is very well taken. Alternative ingredients can make enormous differences in cookies. And beet sugar, for reasons I don't understand, but have seen first hand, can make cookies weird, with strange, unmoist texture. I always forget to think of that. Even in the bag, brown beet sugar feels dry and crumbly. And if it doesn't say “cane” it isn't. Organic brown sugar is usually beet.

Thanks, all. I’ve passed your comments and wisdom along to DD.

Plllog, they can bring alternative-butters to school, but the parents have to include an affirmative declaration of what it is. Apparently there is one boy in the class who is highly allergic, anaphylactic-shock allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. I think DD has bought some sun-butter to use.

I would tell her to ditch that recipe and find another...one with eggs and something liquid...juice or apple sauce or even grated carrots would provide some moisture.....and skip the bi carb and sub some baking powder.
Which is a different recipe.....as I said dump that recipe and find another.

The author shows two different batches. One does look more crumbly than the one that has a slight spread from sitting flat on the cookie sheet. Maybe one sat a bit longer on the counter, (distractions with young children). Or the pre-heat not complete. Went in the oven at a lower temp.? Flours and oats will continue to absorb any moisture if given the time. A dryer batter. And like mentioned, different flours and butters. Different ovens. Different oats. (I pulse mine in the processor to break them up a bit)

Chia is the best as a binder if an egg is not on hand or not in the diet. Soak one tbsp in 3 tbsp water for 20 minutes. Probably as simple as a tbsp of avocado or coconut oil would make a difference.

I make a seed and oat cracker that will not work at all without chia and psyllium husk, ...both are binders. It took a few tries to get the recipe to work for me.

At least give a high five for baking at home instead of pulling out a box of processed cookies. At least you know what ingredients are in the recipe. Most are plenty sweet cutting the sugar in half or more. Especially with all the raisins.

I'm cool with parents wanting to make a better snack. Especially for the picky ones. Yes to the add-ins like carrots, golden beets, apples or sauce, bananas, orange juice, soaked dried fruits, nuts, seeds.

Add an egg, ditch the raisins -- sub in chocolate or butterscotch chips if desired.

If the flavor is good, do everything the exact same way, just add a small quantity of Vital wheat gluten.

dcarch

It looks to me that it needs an egg. Or, she could try using some quick cooking oats. It seems to me that the rolled oat flake is maybe not absorbing the moisture and it remains pretty separate.

Some of the posters pointed out that cookies are inherently not a healthy snack. But I do understand your daughters desire to give the kids something with some nutritional value to it.

Cookies are always going to be just cookies, though. The best thing a mother can do towards cookies is to limit the amount her kids eat.

We can only have control over these things while our kids are little and still pretty much depending on parents to monitor and supply the food. But, as soon as they get out into the world, it all changes.

I am a grandmother and I have been through all of this..........twice.

It is important to teach kids from an early age that rich and sweet treats should be enjoyed in moderation, if you can. I guarantee you taht they won't understand or accept!

Have to agree with others who say that a cookie is still a cookie, until it isn't. And, the kids don't want it if it is not a cookie.

Make a real cookie and limit the amount. You can only tweak a cookie so far and it can only be of so much nutritional value. One thing that I always say about such matters is that, if you have to worry about its nutritional value, you are eating too much of it. If it is worrisome, limit it. Just because you added some carrots or apple sauce to it does not negate the fact that it is a lot of sweet and fat.

Our grown kids can get into some pretty strong ideas when they become parents and we are not lkely to convince them otherwise. What value is the advice from mom when the internet if so full of ideas that mom never dreamed of? What does mom know that the internet does not know better?

UPDATE: DD made the cookies again and added an egg. She said it improved the texture (no longer crumbly) but blunted the sweetness. Adding more brown sugar next time.

Everything all right there?

Plllog, if you are asking about the weather, it is pretty much back to normal, the low 60s. I would say 50% of the people I saw out and about today were wearing shorts. There are still patches of snow, but mostly small ones and only in the shade.

DGS could not go to school today because there was insufficient water pressure to flush toilets. His sister’s school, about 1/2 mile away, was in session. They had enough pressure for the toilets to work. However, the girls had to bring their own drinking water.

It's great that your schools are open at all! I was concerned about you and yours (and all of Texas, but you in particular). We don't get freeze, so it all looks scary.

Interesting about the egg effects on the "cookies". :)

If not putting in cinnamon, I'd put in some other spice to add flavor. I recently made oatmeal cookies with cardamom and that went really well in them. Actually, my DH who isn't usually a big oatmeal cookie fan really loved them.

Most cinnamon in the United States is cassia. Ceylon cinnamon comes from the bark of a different plant. It has a similar flavor but different chemical composition. One of my son's friends is allergic to cinnamon but I'd read that often people who are allergic to cassia aren't allergic to Ceylon cinnamon. He was interested in trying it and we found that he isn't allergic to it. Your DD might see that's tolerated better. Ceylon cinnamon can be bought from spice companies like Penzy's and Spice House.

In addition to the egg (or two), I would add coconut flakes and chocolate chips. The chips go very well with the raisins, and to coconut will add a bit of natural sweetness, although not very much.

I've always made cookies like that with granola instead of rolled oats, and the granola is usually sweet, plus it makes crunchier cookies.