These little babies are absolutely choc-full of protein. Egg, rice protein powder and peanut butter form the triad of muscle-building goodies baked into these cookies for a quick gluten-free post-workout snack.
I’ve got two bags of protein at home (vanilla rice protein and chocolate whey protein) that I keep neglecting to make smoothies with. I’m getting quite sick of opening my pantry and having them staring out at me forlornly (“Eat us Ally, please make something with us…”) and I’ve since seen this while looking for general ideas of how to add protein powder into normal baking recipes.
Making smoothies is easy = throw handfuls of stuff in a blender and cover your ears while it does the work. What I was aiming for had to be portable. Kam goes to the gym after work at night and I wanted something he could snack on the way home when he’s ravenous. It had to be protein-packed to fuel his muscle recovery and aid satiety. Also, only nutrient-packed wholefoods were allowed. I discovered that it’s actually quite simple, replace part of my flour with protein powder, or use it in addition and increase my liquid amounts.
Easy to carry around (and realllly easy to eat) these cookies are also incredibly simple to make – using just one bowl to mix all the ingredients. Who doesn’t love baking with less washing up afterwards?
Why you should bake these
When you’re sick of buying protein bars for a snack/exercise recovery, or it’s too cold to whizz up the blender for a smoothie – these will do in a pinch.
Protein Rich Superstars
Egg: Protein from animal sources—including eggs—contains all essential amino acids in generous amounts and are considered “complete” proteins. Egg protein is the highest biological value protein and is used as the reference for comparing the relative protein values of other foods. An inexpensive and high-quality protein source, egg proteins also has a high absorption rate of 1.5-3 hours. With its sulphur-containing amino acids, eggs boost hormone-producing pathways that are invaluable to building muscle and aiding weight loss. The amino acid leucine that is found in eggs also has unique roles in the regulation of muscle protein synthesis, along with insulin signalling.
Peanut butter: A 2-tbsp. serving of peanut butter has about 8 g protein and while peanut butter contains cysteine and methionine as the limiting amino acids, combining it with other protein rich foods completes the amino acid profile.
Rice Protein Powder: A highly digestible and allergen free protein source. When made from the whole grain rice protein is argued to possesses a PER (protein efficiency ratio) comparable to eggs; otherwise it is generally low in the essential amino acid isoleucine lysine (correction 8/4/14).
- 1 egg, beaten lightly
- 1½ cups natural peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons protein powder (see notes)
- ⅓ cup agave syrup
- ½ cup plain flour (see notes)
- ½ cup LSA (ground linseeds, sunflower seeds and almonds)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 170C; grease or line baking trays. Mix all ingredients well in a large bowl.
- Form little balls of mixture in hands (about 1 tablespoon for each cookie) and place on baking sheet.
- Flatten slightly with your hand and bake for 12 minutes until puffed up and golden brown. Cool for a few minutes before enjoying the soft peanuty goodness.
Protein powder: I used vanilla rice protein which is perfect for baking. Whey, soy or pea protein would all be suitable in either vanilla or chocolate flavours.
Recipe Alterations:
Vegan/Egg-free: replace egg with a chia egg (1 tbsp chia seed + 3 tbsp water) or 1 servings Orgran Egg Replacer.
Peanut-free: replace with other nut butter.
Nut-free: replace with tahini, Free-Nut Butter. Replace LSA with flaxseed meal.
Comments 22
Hello,
These cookies look delicious and I can’t wait to make them, although, I do have a few questions:
1. What is ‘LSA’?
2. Can I use regular protein vanilla powder?
Thanks!
Author
Hi there, so excited you want to try these, I just ate one while getting ready for work hehe
LSA is ground up linseeds (flax), sunflower seeds and almonds – you could swap it for simple flaxseed meal or just omit it, it wouldn’t change the texture or the taste of the cookies.
As for protein powder, anything would work, I used the vanilla rice protein because it was a choice between or the chocolate whey we had on hand, my partner made the final decision because he didn’t feel like a chocolate cookie.
I was recently looking for a simple protein cookie, this is great. Not sure what constitutes “plain” flour, I’m assuming all purpose, but what about using either whole wheat pastry flour or WW flour instead?
Also, stevia in place of agave?
Suggestions for measurement adjustments for either of the above?
Thanks!
Author
Plain flour is the same as all purpose (it’s just what we call it in Australia hehe). Whole wheat pastry or wholewheat or even spelt flour would be fine replacements as well. I would use either option 1:1 for the flour in the recipe, just do a straight substitution. If I hadn’t been making them purposely gluten-free I would have just used the same amount of wholemeal spelt flour in it’s place.
Stevia would be a brilliant substitute for the agave, and would cut the sugar content right down as well, unfortunately I don’t use it in baking a lot – haven’t been able to find the right ratios to use with the powdered or liquid products available here, and it’s still quite expensive too. If you work out measurements for stevia I would love to hear how much you use and what form!
These look great, love the stats. I will have to give them a whirl!
Author
Please do, my bf is hoarding the last of them atm because he loves them. I’ve being deprived of my own cookies lol!
I’ll have to let you know when I make your fabulous cake with protein powder too 😀
lovely flavours delicious cookies
Author
Thanks for the comment, they really were yummy 🙂
My partner and I really enjoyed reading this blog post, I was just itching to know do you trade featured posts? I am always trying to find someone to make trades with and merely thought I would ask.
Author
As you can probably see, I’ve only had the blog up a few months, so I haven’t actually had the chance to do that as yet. I’ve sent you an email about it 🙂
Tried to visit your website and the link doesn’t appear to be working btw 🙁
These sound AMAZING!! 😀
I’ve visited, read, searched, and scoured more food blogs than any one person should–but not since “Roostblog” have I gotten this excited about one. Three years ago my health crashed, and since then I’ve been on a journey of creatively cooking (I like to call it my “kitchen gymnastics”) for my crazy-restricted diet (and now my 15-month-old son’s). I love my naturopath and have learned so much from her, and so finding a naturopath with a beautiful food blog–and one who shares the much-wanted technical, nutritional, helpful info!–well, it’s thrilling! Thank you so much, Ally! I can’t wait to read through your recipes and put them to work in my kitchen. You have encouraged me so much today!
Author
Reading this comment made me smile so much Colleen! Thankyou for the wonderful feedback, I love hearing from readers and am so glad you’ve enjoyed the site 🙂 Please let me know if you need anything or if there’s any recipes you’ve been looking for, I love requests and challenges!
You are so kind, Ally! Thank you for your thoughtful offer–that means so much! I will definitely be in touch!
Whats the nutritional breakdown for these cookies?
Author
Great question Melissa 🙂 I don’t usually work out the nutritional breakdown for my recipes, as I believe there is more to nutrition that caloric intake and macronutrient profiles.
Having said that, there is a fantastic recipe analyzer tool over at http://www.caloriecount.about.com (under the Tools menu) if you ever want to find out about your favourite recipes. Putting in the data over there gives you the following info per cookie: 185cal, 12.1 total fat, 2.1 sat fat, 12g total carb, 2.4g fiber, 1.6g sugar, 8.7g protein.
Hi! Lovely recipe however, I was unable to find agave syrup at the store so i used honey instead…. I found the mixture to be really dry before baking 🙁
Is there another alternative to the syrup? They smell delicious when cooking, just too crumbly!
Thanks 🙂
Author
Great question and feedback Emma! Since I’ve posted that recipe I’ve been using agave less and less in favour of some other natural sweeteners. You can substitute with any unrefined sugar and increase the amount to 1 cup. If the cookies are quite crumbly you may need an extra egg to bind it all together too. Hope this info helps, thanks so much for your comment 😀
Will maple syrup work as substitute to agave? I found them to be a little dry too, so I will add one more egg too…Thank you for the great recipe!
Author
Maple syrup would definitely work, I no longer recommend agave syrup and that’s what I would use these days anyway 😀 My pleasure Maria, thank you for the comment!
Hello:
Great recipe! I am the Registered Dietitian for a rice protein company: Growing Naturals and I just wanted to clarify some information on your article. Rice protein is actually low in the amino acid lysine NOT isoleucine. It has plenty of isoleucine. Lysine can be found in generous quantities in beans and legumes.
Let me know if you have any questions about rice protein–I’m happy to help!
Author
Hi Scarlet, thanks for the correction. I was originally basing my information there on three studies that I’ve since tucked away and can’t find (as this post is a few years old now), showing that while rice itself was limiting in lysine, the protein when manufactured from the bran is comparatively low in isoleucine instead. I’m going to have to put on my scouting hat and find my references for this to clarify where I sourced the info from. Currently the only study I can find is from 1995 (so not very current) and also states that theonine is low also: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7621091