Two-Tone Vegan Protein Cookies with Peanut Butter, Cocoa, and Cinnamon

Have you noticed how many foods have gotten the added-protein treatment in recent years?

Protein puddings, protein yogurt, protein ravioli, protein crackers. Protein everything.

Some of these products really deliver when it comes to protein per calorie. Others? Not so much.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of these products. I'd rather get my protein from whole foods like legumes, seeds, and grains.

But—and this is a big but—sometimes I like a shortcut. A protein-enriched food can be a handy way to fill a gap without making a whole production of it.

Take these two-tone vegan protein cookies. I like to bake a batch ahead of time, stash them in a container, and grab one for a snack or an end-of-day treat.

They're a useful way to bump up your protein intake when you're bulking or cutting. Or, you know, when you just want something tasty to snack on.

A Few Notes on These Vegan Protein Cookies

• The base of these cookies is soy flour, which is especially rich in protein.

Protein and calorie counts vary among soy flour brands. For this recipe, I used soy flour from Dagesh (an Israeli food brand).

You can swap in another flour, such as chickpea or lentil flour, but the protein and carbohydrate amounts will change considerably.

• The other main protein boost comes from unflavored vegan protein powder from Myprotein. It absorbs a lot of liquid.

Use whatever protein powder you have, but pay attention to how much liquid you add to the dough. Every powder behaves a little differently.

If you don't have protein powder, simply replace the full amount with more soy flour.

• Instead of adding oil, I use natural peanut butter.

You can replace the peanut butter with the same amount of almond butter or even straight tahini.

• To balance soy flour's strong, distinctive flavor, I add a heaping tablespoon of cinnamon to the dough, then about 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to half of it.
• For moisture without adding many calories, I use 3 tablespoons of unsweetened applesauce. You can substitute the same amount of mashed ripe banana.
• I sweeten the batch with 1/3 cup of brown sugar. I'm comfortable with that modest amount, especially since it's divided among 20 cookies.

Nutrition Facts

One cookie out of a batch of 20, weighing 36 g (1.3 oz), contains:

• 140 calories
• 12 g protein
• 13 g carbohydrates
• 4 g fat

Want another recipe with soy flour? How about a mug cake?

Two-Tone Vegan Protein Cookies

Prep Time 35 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Yield 20 cookies

Calories 140 kcal

Ingredients

• 1 cup soy flour 150 g (5.3 oz)
• 1 cup unflavored vegan protein powder 150 g (5.3 oz)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 250 g (8.8 oz) Rusty's peanut butter (an Israeli nut butter brand) one small jar
• 1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon 7 g (0.25 oz)
• 2 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder 14 g (0.5 oz)
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce 80 g (2.8 oz)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4-1/2 cup almond milk up to 120 ml (1/2 cup)

Instructions

1. In a deep mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients except the cocoa powder: soy flour, protein powder, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix well.

2. Add the peanut butter, applesauce, and 1/4 cup almond milk to the dry ingredients. Mix well.

3. If the mixture is very dry, add more almond milk until you have a cohesive, sticky dough.

4. Transfer half the dough to another bowl. Add 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and mix until evenly incorporated.

5. Refrigerate both bowls for half an hour to let the dough firm up.

6. After about half an hour, preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F).

7. With wet hands, roll a ball of cocoa dough and a ball of cinnamon dough, then press them together to form one ball.

8. Place the ball on a lined baking sheet and flatten it into a disk with your hands. Repeat with the remaining dough.

9. Bake for about 15 minutes, until lightly browned.

10. Remove from the oven and cool completely before transferring to a container.

11. Store in an airtight container for about a month.