Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Enjoy Life Mega Chunks and Banana Oatmeal Mega Chunk Cookies

I was so excited when I heard about Enjoy Life's new Mega Chunks, but then I couldn't find them in my local store. Then Enjoy Life contacted me and asked if I would like to review them and I said oh yes, yes! For the record, they also sent me a bag of their new chocolate granola to review. It tastes wonderful! I've always enjoyed the flavors of Enjoy Life granolas, but I have a problem with the texture. I am not a crunchy person, and they are definitely harder than oat based granolas. However, if you are the kind of person who loves snacking on corn nuts, like my mother, then you should definitely give it a try. Now back to the Mega Chunks. They are wonderful little chocolate chunks, about the size of half a Tootsie Roll, and have so much potential that I had a hard time deciding what to do with them first (besides eating them straight out of the bag, which we also did). Remember, they are free of all top 8 allergens, Kosher, and have no trans fats or artificial ingredients...not to mention delicious! Meanwhile, I had a brown banana calling my name and two girls in need of cookies, so was born the banana oatmeal chocolate chunk cookie. :)

BANANA OATMEAL MEGA CHUNK COOKIES:
1/2 c Gluten free oat flour
1/2 c Sorghum flour
1/8 c Potato starch
1/8 c Tapioca starch
1/4 t Xanthan gum
1/2 t Baking soda
1 t Salt
1 t Cinnamon
3/4 c Dairy free margarine (or Spectrum Shortening for soy free)
1 c Brown sugar
1 1/2 c Pureed bananas
1 t Gluten Free vanilla extract
3 c Gluten free rolled oats
About 20 -25 pieces of Enjoy Life Mega Chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lay parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
Whisk together oat flour, sorghum flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. Cream together margarine and brown sugar. Add vanilla and banana. Mix well, scraping sides and bottom of bowl to make sure all margarine is incorporated. Blend in the flour mix. Add oats, and stir for 1 more minute.
Drop cookies on parchment lined cookie sheet by large tablespoons (or using a small spring action ice cream scoop like I did). Press one Mega Chunk deep into the center of each cookie (they tend to rise back out a bit when baking).
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. The chocolate chunks take about an hour to harden back up, so if you are going to be stacking your cookies for storage, you may want to refrigerate them for a few minutes first.
These cookies were really delicious, and possibly bordering on healthy. I can't wait to try another recipe with this chocolate...maybe the blondie recipe on the back of the bag. Yum!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh! I just made my dairy,egg,soy and peanut/tree nut free oatmeal cookies today and used the enjoy life mega chunks...my boys loved them. Second time using them and even though I added more chocolate chunks my kids complained there still was not enough! susan H. @ the food allergy chronicles

Tessa Domestic Diva said...

These cookies look tasty!! Banana, oatmeal, and chocolate?! I am in! Found you through a google search, I am working with four other food allergy bloggers and we are starting Allergy Free Wednesdays to share food allergy recipes and tips. We would love it if you could post some of your recipes!! Hope you can stop by wed! I pinned your recipe for trying!

tessadomesticdiva.blogspot.com

cindy said...

These look amazing! I'd love to have you link them up at our Gluten Free Fridays link up party! We'd love to have you!! :)
Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com

FoodAllergyMom said...

Thank you Cindy! I can't get your blog to open up for me. Any suggestions?

Unknown said...

Hi has anyone tried to make these without the xanthate gum ?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
FoodAllergyMom said...

Hi Michelle. I hope this answer isn't coming too late. I know that when I ask a question about a recipe it's usually because I want to make it right NOW. I haven't made these without the xanthan gum, but I think it will be just fine. Xanthan gum's purpose is to retain moisture and to prevent gluten free products from crumbling. Bananas do both of those things also, and this recipe has a lot of banana in it. Thanks for stopping by!