Granola just got an upgrade
I’d never object to eating a regular cookie for breakfast. But I’d always thought a breakfast cookie for dessert would make me sad.
Packed with good-for-you ingredients like whole grains, nuts and seeds, a breakfast cookie is meant to be healthful and substantial, something to fill an empty belly rather than a whimsical sweet to tempt a full one.
Then I brought home some breakfast cookies from Frenchette Bakery in New York, and I saw that I was wrong.
Decidedly not dainty, the cookies were saucer-size pucks — craggy with oats and seeds, flecked with coconut and chewy from dried cherries. Their centers were soft and yielding, but the edges crisped delightfully and even became a little buttery, which is all too rare for a confection of this kind.
So, I emailed the bakery for the recipe, which was a collaboration between Michelle Palazzo, the pastry chef, and Peter Edris, the head baker.
It turned out to be both gluten-free and highly adaptable. You can take the basic formula and play with it, substituting raisins for cherries or peanut butter for almond butter, Edris told me.
Since I adored the cookies as they were, I left the recipe pretty much alone. My only tweak was pressing the dough into a 9-inch square pan to make bars. It was slightly easier than forming individual cookies, and I liked the softer texture they took on. The bars will also stay fresh a little longer, up to a week rather than a few days.
Breakfast bars with oats and coconut
Yield: 18 bars
Total time: 1 hour, plus cooling and at least 6 hours’ chilling
3/4 cup/180 milliliters smooth
Ingredients
almond butter, at room temperature 1/2 cup/100 grams sugar 1/3 cup/73 grams light brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing
1 large egg, beaten, at room temperature
1 egg white, at room temperature 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups/146 grams rolled oats 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/3 cup/28 grams unsweetened coconut flakes
1/4 cup/37 grams dried cherries (or another soft, plump dried fruit) 3 tablespoons poppy seeds 2 tablespoons shelled sunflower seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons flaxseeds
1 1/2 tablespoons sesame seeds
Directions
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment,
or using a hand-held mixer and a large bowl, cream almond butter, granulated and brown sugars, and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add egg, egg white, salt and vanilla, and mix until well incorporated, occasionally scraping the side and bottom of bowl, about 1 minute longer.
2. Put oats in a small bowl, sift the baking soda over them, and beat into almond butter mixture. With the mixer on low speed, stir in coconut flakes, cherries and seeds until thoroughly mixed. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly against the surface of the dough (still in the bowl) and refrigerate for at least 6 hours and up to 2 days. (This allows the oats to hydrate.)
3. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a metal 9-inch square baking pan with butter and line it with parchment paper, leaving about 2 inches to hang over 2 sides of the pan and use as handles later. Grease the parchment paper as well.
4. Scrape dough into the prepared baking pan. Lightly grease a large spatula and firmly press the mixture into the pan in an even layer. Bake until the surface is light golden brown and firm, 25 to 30 minutes.
5. Transfer to a rack and allow bars to cool completely in the pan. Once cooled, use a butter knife or small offset spatula to cut along the inside edges of the pan and release the bars.
Using the parchment paper overhang, lift bars out of the pan and place them on a cutting board. Cut into 18 bars. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Tips: To make these into cookies rather than bars, drop 1/4-cup measures of the dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheets and bake until golden at the edges, 10 to 15 minutes.