These Hello Beautiful Cookies might be on the ugly side, but they are filled with skin-loving ingredients loaded with nutrients to have you glowing from the inside out: let’s make these beauty cookies!
Hey Bookie Club! Start your ovens!
This isn’t a regular book club, you know! Every month to celebrate finishing another new read, I whip up a cookie recipe to match the theme of the book.
This months’ book was ‘Hello Beautiful’ and I created an on-theme recipe – the Hello Beautiful Cookie. The cookie was dreamed up as a nod to Rose’s deep love for gardening and Charlie’s endearing greeting that he would say every time he saw one of his daughters, “hello beautiful”. To dig a layer deeper, I also loved the emotional complexity of the book: there are no good or bad characters, just people navigating through the hard parts of life. And this book most certainly had layers.
How to Make Beauty Cookies
These cookies are a gentle reminder to not judge beauty from the outside: they aren’t the most beautiful cookie I’ve ever made! However, these cookies are soft, satisfying and everything a better-for-you cookie should be. I listed the key ingredients below that help qualify them as a “beauty cookie”. Note that I played around with this recipe a LOT, and the final recipe I landed on is even softer in texture than the version I photographed.
Hello Beautiful Cookie: Nutrition
These cookies are full of healthy and beautiful goodness. I chose the ingredients with intention in order to make a cookie that tastes as good as it really is for you. My family were the testers, and many batches later, these beauties were the winners – pun intended.
Here is a nutrient breakdown of the all-star ingredients inside these Hello Beautiful Cookies:
- Grated carrots, zucchini & apple: antioxidants, vitamins A & C (to support collagen creation and prevent oxidative damage)
- Oats: beta-glucan fibre
- Almond butter: protein and vitamin E
- Honey and brown sugar: for sweetness (it’s a cookie, after all)
- Dried raisins or cranberries: fibre, vitamin C, and antioxidant reservatrol in raisins
- Walnuts: protein, zinc and healthy omega-3 fats (strong skin barrier, reduces inflammation)
- Pumpkin seeds & sunflower seeds: protein, vitamin E and selenium
- Chia seeds and hemp seeds (aka hemp hearts): fibre, protein and healthy omega-3 fats
- Olive or avocado oil: omega-3 fats/vitamin E
Healthier Baking Recipes
If there’s one thing I love, it’s baking. What I love the most is making baking recipes healthier– not the obnoxious kind of healthy: the kind that still tastes delicious. I’m kind of a pro in that department, and you can be too with these recipes!
- Lunchbox Cookies
- Veggie Muffins
- Healthier Date Bars
- Sneaky Mommy Muffins
- Fraîche Table Blueberry Breakfast Cookies
Hello Beautiful Cookies
Hello Beautiful Cookies
These Hello Beautiful Cookies are filled with skin-loving ingredients loaded with nutrients to have you glowing from the inside out!
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup grated peeled carrots, packed
- 1 cup grated zucchini, packed skin left on
- 1 cup grated apple, packed skin left on
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
- 1 cup shredded coconut sweetened or unsweetened
- 1 cup walnuts, chopped
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup dried cranberries or raisins
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup hemp seeds
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
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In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the carrots, zucchini, apple, honey, almond butter, oil, and vanilla. Stir to combine.
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In a large bowl, stir together the oats, coconut, walnuts, cranberries, flours, brown sugar, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
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Stir the veggie mixture into the flour mixture, stirring until well combined.
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Drop around ¼ cup portions of cookie dough on to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 1-inch apart and slightly flattening with the back of a spoon.
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Bake the cookies for around 20 minutes, until the bottoms are golden brown. Cool slightly on the pan before transferring to a cooling rack. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. These freeze beautifully for up to 2 months.
Recipe Notes
- Vegan adaptation: use 2 flax eggs in place of the eggs and maple syrup instead of honey. To make 1 flax egg, combine 1 tablespoon of ground flax with 3 tablespoons of water and let it sit for 10 minutes.
- Gluten-free adaptation: Use gluten-free 1:1 all purpose flour in place of the all-purpose and whole wheat flours. Make sure you use gluten-free oats (large flake is fine).
- Nut-free adaptation: Substitute a seed butter for the almond butter and substitute extra seeds for the walnuts.
- To make a less sweet cookie, leave out the brown sugar and use unsweetened shredded coconut.
Made these beautiful cookies today!!! They are so good!! Recipe was easy to follow and they turned out perfect. Also really enjoyed the book. Thank you for starting the bookie club!
Hey Chris! Thank you for such a lovely message! I am so happy that you loved this recipe and to have you in the club. More to come! xo Tori
These cookies are so so good!!! I would definitely make them again. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe. I have enjoyed every bookie club selection so far and always look forward to seeing what recipe you’ll come up with to go along with the book. The honey oatmeal cookies are also delicious by the way!!!
Hi Liza! WOW this review made my morning! Thank you so much, I am really happy to hear you love the recipe and the Bookie Club. I am so grateful to have you in this community. xo Tori
These cookies are delicious and perfect for a quick nutritious snack. My family from 5-65 all enjoyed them. Thanks for a great recipe, they are now in my permanent rotation.