Soft cocoa and orange cookies


It has been a million years since I posted a dessert recipe on my blog. The main reason probably is that all my best dessert recipes went into my Estonian vegan dessert cookbook. This book is still in a heavy rotation in my kitchen and a perfect helper whenever I'm a need to make fluffy vegan muffins, crispy cookies or mouthwatering spoon desserts. But these cookies just insisted on getting on my blog and fast!

My boyfriend is a huge cookie lover. Me and the rest of the family already knows that you can't win his heart with chocolate. Give him a pack of cookies and he is much more happier. But of course his most favorite ones are the fresh from the oven homemade cookies. When I was writing my dessert cookbook, he was the best food tester. You knew that if he munched all the cookies, it was a great recipe. These cocoa and orange cookies quickly became a favorite and I have made them several times now. Ususally most of the cookies are crispy but these are soft. Like little cocoa pillows with a refreshing orange.

Actually it is pretty hard to write this post right now. Just by looking a these pictures I have the urge to devour these cookies. I guess I have to heat up the oven again. The best part is that these cookies will be ready in 15 minutes! Definitely give them a try :)

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Serves: 20 cookies

Ingredients:
  • ½ cup + 2 heaping Tbsp / 100 g whole wheat flour
  • ½ cup + 2 heaping Tbsp / 100 g all-purpose flour
  • 2 heaping Tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking power
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ½ cup / 100 g Demerara sugar
  • ⅓ cup / 75 ml oil (sunflower oil for example)
  • 1 medium ripe banana
  • grated zest of one medium orange
  • 1 Tbsp orange juice

Directions:

Heat up the oven to 350 F / 180 C. Mix the flours with cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, heavily whisk sugar with oil. Mash a banana with a fork and add it to the oil and sugar mixture along with grated orange zest and orange juice. Whisk well. Now mix the wet ingredients with dry ingredients. I used my hands. You should have a formable wet dough. Form little balls out of the dough and put the balls onto the baking try covered with parchment paper. Use a fork to press a little pattern onto each cookie. When the oven has reached the temprature, bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes. Let them cool a little bit before eating.