A Healthier Version of the Starbucks Macadamia Oat Cookie

One of my followers recently presented an interesting challenge to me.  Having read my review of the Starbucks Vegan Macadamia Oat Cookie, she wanted to know if I might be willing to develop a healthier recipe for the cookie.  I accepted the challenge and headed to the kitchen.

After looking at the list of ingredients for the Starbucks cookie on their website, I started with many of the same ingredients and then made some adjustments.  Of course, I didn’t know the measurements for the ingredients in the Starbucks cookie, but I had learned some general ratios for cookies during my studies at The School of Natural Cookery.  I used those ratios as a starting point.

Making a Healthier Cookie

I had several objectives for making the recipe healthier, while still turning out a tasty treat:

1. Reduce the amount of fat.  The Starbucks cookie, if you ate the whole (nearly Frisbee-sized!) thing, would provide a whopping 23g of fat, which is listed as 35% of your daily recommended allowance of fat.  In one cookie!  One indication that the fat in the Starbucks cookie might be a bit excessive were the oil spots that it left on the paper bag used to transport it from the store.  I reduced the amount of oil I might normally have used by replacing part of the oil with unsweetened applesauce.  I also decided to substitute walnut oil for the canola oil in the Starbucks list of ingredients.  Canola oil contains some trans fat that is generated during processing, and I generally avoid trans fats because they are known to increase LDL (bad) cholesterol in the body and decrease the HDL (good) cholesterol.  Walnut oil doesn’t have trans fats, and it has a mild flavor that is suitable for baked goods.   So the substitution works well.  I kept the amount of walnut oil as low as possible without sacrificing taste.  (It should be noted that the Starbucks nutrition label shows zero trans fats, and that is because the law allows food manufacturers to put zero on the nutrition label if the product has less than 0.5g of trans fat per serving. But if they use canola oil, some trans fats are in there.)
2. Increase the amount of fiber.  The Starbucks cookie was made with “enriched wheat flour,” which is another way of saying “flour that has been stripped of its nutrients, and then a few are added back in.”  I don’t even keep All Purpose or Enriched Wheat Flour in my pantry; whole grain flours are much healthier.  So Whole Wheat Pastry Flour is my go-to binder for all baked goods, and I used that — plus some oat flour for a bit of fluffiness.
3. Eliminate refined sugar. The Starbucks cookie had maple syrup but also cane sugar on its list of ingredients.  Maple syrup is less refined and it’s my choice when I need a liquid sweetener, so that is what I used in my recipe.
4. I used oat milk for part of the liquid in the recipe, because it’s my secret weapon to achieve browning of vegan baked goods.

Comparison of Nutritional Labels

The results are shown below.  The second and third columns provide an apples-to-apples comparison (so to speak) of comparable amounts.    As you will see, my cookie is lower in fat and higher in fiber, which were two of the goals that I had set.  The sugars were comparable between my cookie and the same amount of the Starbucks cookie, although I would maintain that I still achieved an improvement by eliminating the refined cane sugar.  I would also note that the Starbucks cookie has some additional protein, possibly because of the addition of some almond flour in their recipe — which I did not have on hand so did not include.  Substitution of some almond flour for the oat flour in my recipe might boost the protein level a bit if that’s important to you.     

But look!  Here is the catch about comparing the numbers in the table.  If you buy the (big) cookie from Starbucks, are you really going to divide it into three more reasonable servings, or will you keep munching until the whole thing is down the hatch?  I’m betting on the latter.  Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad that Starbucks is expanding its vegan offerings.  Just remember that’s it quite possible to be an unhealthy vegan by eating too much sugar and fat.  Please don’t do that.

How’s the Taste?

My cookie passed the family taste test with excellent scores. The texture is soft and the flavor is good.  Please give the recipe a try and let me know what you think!